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Patrick F. Sullivan, MD, FRANZCP
Professor


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Research Interests

The Sullivan lab aims to understand the genetic and epidemiological basis of a number of important public-health problems. These disorders are etiologically heterogeneous and exhibit complex patterns of inheritance. Developing an understanding of these disorders requires the integration of findings from multiple investigative approaches such as epidemiology, linkage analysis, and association studies. The lab applies these methods to several research areas:

Schizophrenia
This is a chronic and debilitating mental disorder that affects approximately 1% of the human population. Although it is clear that genetics plays a role in schizophrenia, specific genes that have a causal role in the disease have yet to be identified. The Sullivan lab is conducting a series of studies to elucidate its etiology. In addition, pharmacogenetic studies are underway to determine the mechanism of action of antipsychotic drugs that are currently used to treat some of the symptoms of schizophrenia.

Smoking Behavior
Tobacco use is one of the major public health problems throughout the world. Led by Dr. Helena Furberg, PhD, the Sullivan lab is interested in identifying genetic influences on smoking behavior, particularly nicotine dependence, as well as the genetic epidemiology of smoking cessation. The lab conducts association studies for smoking behavior and is currently conducting a large twin study of smoking cessation.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)
CFS is an uncommon but clearly debilitating disorder that remains controversial despite many years of study. Standard methods of genetic epidemiology have yielded little information about the etiology of CFS. The Sullivan lab has put significant effort toward using novel microarray and proteomic approaches to identify useful etiological hypotheses for this complex disease.


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Publications

Dr. Sullivan has 170 total publications (153 journal articles, 17 chapters or invited articles, and 2 miscellaneous items). Recent papers are shown below. Click here for a PubMed search.

Furberg, H., P. Lichtenstein, N. L. Pedersen, C. M. Bulik and P. F. Sullivan (In press). Cigarettes and oral snuff use in Sweden: prevalence and transitions. Addiction.

Hemminger, B. M., B. Saelim and P. F. Sullivan (2006). TAMAL: An integrated approach to choosing SNPs for genetic studies of human complex traits. Bioinformatics 22: 626-7.

Kato, K., P. Sullivan, B. Evengård and N. L. Pedersen (In press). Chronic widespread pain and its comorbidities: A population-based study. Archives of Internal Medicine.

Lichtenstein, P., C. Bjork, C. M. Hultman, E. M. Scolnick, P. Sklar and P. F. Sullivan (In press). Recurrence risks for schizophrenia in a Swedish national cohort. Psychological Medicine.

Perkins, D. O., C. Jeffries and P. Sullivan (2004). Expanding the 'central dogma': the regulatory role of nonprotein coding genes and implications for the genetic liability to schizophrenia. Mol Psychiatry 10: 69-78.

Pinheiro, A., R. Keefe, T. Skelly, M. Olarte, K. Leviel, L. Lange, E. M. Lange, T. Stroup, J. Lieberman and P. F. Sullivan (In press). AKT1 and neurocognition in schizophrenia. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.

Sullivan, P. F., B. Evengard, A. Jacks and N. L. Pedersen (2005). Twin analyses of chronic fatigue in a Swedish national sample. Psychol Med 35(9): 1327-36.

Sullivan, P. F., R. S. E. Keefe, L. A. Lange, E. M. Lange, T. S. Stroup, J. A. Lieberman and P. F. Maness (In press). NCAM1 and neurocognition in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry.
Sullivan, P. F., K. S. Kendler and M. C. Neale (2003). Schizophrenia as a complex trait: evidence from a meta-analysis of twin studies. Archives of General Psychiatry 60: 1187-92.

Sullivan, P. F., P.-H. Kuo, B. T. Webb, M. C. Neale, J. Vittum, H. Furberg, D. Walsh, D. G. Patterson, B. Riley, C. A. Prescott and K. S. Kendler (Submitted). Genomewide linkage survey of nicotine dependence phenotypes.

Sullivan, P. F., G. W. Montgomery, J. J. Hottenga, N. R. Wray, D. I. Boomsma and N. G. Martin (In press). Empirical evaluation of the genetic similarity of samples from twin registries in Australia and the Netherlands using 359 STRP markers. Twin Res Hum Genet.

Sullivan, P. F., B. M. Neale, M. C. Neale, E. J. C. G. van den Oord and K. S. Kendler (2003). Multipoint and single point non-parametric linkage analysis with imperfect data. Am J Med Genet 121B: 89-94.

van den Oord, E. J. and P. F. Sullivan (2003). A framework for controlling false discovery rates and minimizing the amount of genotyping in the search for disease mutations. Hum Hered 56(4): 188-99.

van den Oord, E. J. C. G., P. F. Sullivan, X. Jiang, D. Walsh, F. A. O'Neill, K. S. Kendler and B. Riley (2003). Identification of a high risk haplotype for the dystrobrevin binding protein 1 (DTNBP1) gene in the Irish Study of High Density Schizophrenia families. Molecular Psychiatry 8: 499-510.

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Trainees

Furberg, Helena - 2003-present, UNC-CH K-award mentor
Leviel, Keren - 2004-2006, UNC-CH Pre-doc
Losh, Molly - 2005 present, UNC-CH K-award mentor
Neale, Ben - 2001 2003, VCU Undergrad
Pinheiro, Andrea - 2005 2006, UNC-CH Visiting scientist
Tozzi, Federica - 2001 2002, VCU Visiting scientist
Tsai, Huei-Ting - 2004 present, UNC-CH Pre-doc
Wojczynski, Mary - 2003 2006, UNC-CH Pre-doc
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Contact Information

4109D Neuroscience Research Building, CB 7264
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7264

Office: 919.966.3358
Lab: 919.966.7548
Fax: 919.966.3630

Email: patrick_sullivan<at>med.unc.edu


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