Full Story was Published in The New York Times on December 3, 2018.
Following three significant scientific studies published in the last three weeks, The New York Times featured a story on the recent discoveries involving the placenta, published in the Health Section online on December 3, 2018.
The Lieber Institute’s work to better understand the placenta’s role in risk for developmental brain disorders, including schizophrenia, was published in the journal Nature Medicine earlier this year.
The study, “Convergence of placenta biology and genetic risk for schizophrenia” sheds light on the placenta’s critical role in the nature versus nurture debate and how it confers risk for schizophrenia. In contrast to prior studies which focused on how genes related to behavioral disorders directly alter prenatal brain development, this novel research found that many genes associated with risk for schizophrenia appear to alter early brain development indirectly, by influencing the health of the placenta.
In The New York Times, Director and CEO Daniel R. Weinberger, M.D., said, “The missing link between complications during pregnancy and development of the brain has been hiding in plain sight for a long time. It’s the placenta.”
For the full story: “The Placenta, an Afterthought No Longer.”