Alexander Niculescu
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Alexander Niculescu is
Alexander Bogdan Niculescu, MD, PhD, is a Romanian born, San Diego, California, educated and trained, scientist and physician. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Indiana, and an Attending Psychiatrist at the Indianapolis VA Medical Center. Considered the inventor of Convergent Functional Genomics1 2, he is a prominent figure in the nascent field of personalized medicine in psychiatry. His early contributions to the psychiatric genetics field include identification of candidate genes, pathways and mechanisms for bipolar disorder using convergent (human and animal model, genetic and gene expression) studies1,3. In particular, his work and that of his collaborators has focused attention on circadian clock genes as core components of mood regulation1,3-5. Since these contributions, his research program has expanded to include similar work on schizophrenia6, alcoholism7, and stress disorders4, leading to the identification of panels of DNA8 and RNA markers9 10 for disease risk prediction and severity of illness. Niculescu pioneered early on the view that psychiatric disorders are genetically complex, heterogeneous, and overlapping, requiring gene level integration of data followed by pathway analyses11 12. The cumulative combinatorics of common variants and environment model he described for bipolar and other complex disorders8, based on empirical data, is being increasingly supported by evidence from other groups working on psychiatric and non-psychiatric disorders. Most recently, he has proposed a comprehensive unifying model (Mindscape) for conceptualizing how the mind works13.
References
1 Niculescu, A. B., 3rd et al., Identifying a series of candidate genes for mania and psychosis: a convergent functional genomics approach. Physiol Genomics 4 (1), 83 (2000). 2 Bertsch, B. et al., Convergent functional genomics: a Bayesian candidate gene identification approach for complex disorders. Methods 37 (3), 274 (2005). 3 Ogden, C. A. et al., Candidate genes, pathways and mechanisms for bipolar (manic-depressive) and related disorders: an expanded convergent functional genomics approach. Mol Psychiatry 9 (11), 1007 (2004). 4 Le-Niculescu, H et al., Phenomic, convergent functional genomic, and biomarker studies in a stress-reactive genetic animal model of bipolar disorder and co-morbid alcoholism. American Journal of Medical Genetics B 147B (2), 134 (2008). 5 Le-Niculescu, H. et al., Convergent functional genomics of genome-wide association data for bipolar disorder: comprehensive identification of candidate genes, pathways and mechanisms. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet 150B (2), 155 (2009); McGrath, C. L. et al., Evidence for genetic association of RORB with bipolar disorder. BMC Psychiatry 9, 70 (2009). 6 Le-Niculescu, H. et al., Towards understanding the schizophrenia code: An expanded convergent functional genomics approach. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet 144 (2), 129 (2007). 7 Rodd, Z. A. et al., Candidate genes, pathways and mechanisms for alcoholism: an expanded convergent functional genomics approach. Pharmacogenomics J 7 (4), 222 (2007). 8 Patel, S. D. et al., Coming to grips with complex disorders: genetic risk prediction in bipolar disorder using panels of genes identified through convergent functional genomics. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet 153B (4), 850. 9 Le-Niculescu, H. et al., Identifying blood biomarkers for mood disorders using convergent functional genomics. Mol Psychiatry 14 (2), 156 (2009). 10 Kurian, S. M. et al., Identification of blood biomarkers for psychosis using convergent functional genomics. Mol Psychiatry (2009). 11 Niculescu, A. B. et al., PhenoChipping of psychotic disorders: A novel approach for deconstructing and quantitating psychiatric phenotypes. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet 141 (6), 653 (2006). 12 Niculescu, A. B., 3rd, Polypharmacy in oligopopulations: what psychiatric genetics can teach biological psychiatry. Psychiatr Genet 16 (6), 241 (2006). 13 Niculescu, A. B., 3rd, Schork, N. J., and Salomon, D. R., Mindscape: a convergent perspective on life, mind, consciousness and happiness. J Affect Disord 123 (1-3), 1.