Brenda W.J.H. Penninx

Atypical energy-related symptoms define biologically distinct subtypes of major depressive disorder

The paper identifies biologically distinct subtypes of MDD based on energy-related symptoms and finds genetic and metabolic differences between them.

Major depression and atherosclerotic disease: Linking shared genetics to pathways in blood, brain, heart, and atherosclerotic plaques

This study identifies shared genetic risk between major depression and atherosclerotic diseases and links causal gene expression changes in blood, brain, and heart tissues to depression etiology.

Shared genetic architecture of brain age gap across 30 cohorts worldwide

This study identifies a shared genetic factor underlying brain age gaps across 30 cohorts, finding 19 SNPs and associations with health traits.

Sex- and Depression-specific Effects of Non-pathogenic CAG Repeats in HTT, ATXN3 and CACNA1A on Sleep

This study examines how non-pathogenic CAG repeats in HTT, ATXN3, and CACNA1A genes affect sleep outcomes, finding sex- and depression-specific associations.

Trans-eQTL mapping prioritises USP18 as a negative regulator of interferon response at a lupus risk locus

The paper identifies USP18 as a negative regulator of interferon response at a lupus risk locus through trans-eQTL analysis in lymphoblastoid cell lines.

Lifestyle, Early-life, and Genetic Health Risk Factors Underlying the Brain Age Gap: A Mega-Analysis Across 3,934 Individuals from the ENIGMA MDD Consortium

This study identifies lifestyle, early-life, and genetic factors associated with brain age gaps in individuals with major depressive disorder compared to controls.

Social dysfunction relates to altered default mode network functional integrity across neuropsychiatric disorders: A replication and generalization study

This study replicates and extends findings linking social dysfunction to reduced default mode network connectivity in schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, and major depressive disorder.

Accelerated brain change in healthy adults is associated with genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease and uncovers adult lifespan memory decline

The paper shows that higher genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease is linked to faster brain volume loss and memory decline in healthy adults.

Genetic structure of major depression symptoms across clinical and community cohorts

This study identifies genetic subtypes of major depressive symptoms by analyzing data from clinical and community cohorts, finding distinct factors for appetite/weight symptoms and missing data patterns.

OTTERS: A powerful TWAS framework leveraging summary-level reference data

OTTERS is a TWAS framework that uses summary-level eQTL reference data to estimate eQTL weights and perform omnibus TWAS, showing improved power and applicability.

Genome-wide analysis identifies genetic effects on reproductive success and ongoing natural selection at the FADS locus.

This study identifies 43 genomic loci associated with reproductive success in 785,604 individuals, showing ongoing natural selection at the FADS locus.

Multimodal Data Integration Advances Longitudinal Prediction of the Naturalistic Course of Depression and Reveals a Multimodal Signature of Disease Chronicity

This study uses machine learning to predict 2-year MDD chronicity by integrating proteomics with clinical data, showing improved accuracy over psychiatrists' predictions.

A Large-Scale ENIGMA Multisite Replication Study of Brain Age in Depression

The paper replicates a brain age gap in depression using a large-scale multisite study, finding a similar effect size to a prior study.

Genome-wide characterization of circulating metabolic biomarkers reveals substantial pleiotropy and novel disease pathways

This study identifies 400+ genetic loci associated with circulating metabolic traits and highlights pleiotropy and novel disease pathways.

Brain aging differs with cognitive ability regardless of education

The paper investigates how general cognitive ability relates to cortical brain volume changes over time, finding associations with both brain reserve and maintenance mechanisms.

Genome-wide analysis of 102,084 migraine cases identifies 123 risk loci and subtype-specific risk alleles

This GWAS identifies 123 migraine risk loci, including subtype-specific variants and novel targets, supporting neurovascular mechanisms in migraine.

Charting Brain Growth and Aging at High Spatial Precision

This work develops normative models of brain growth and aging using neuroimaging data to quantify variability across disorders and improve case-control inferences.

Indoxyl sulfate, a gut microbiome-derived uremic toxin, is associated with psychic anxiety and its functional magnetic resonance imaging-based neurologic signature

The paper links indoxyl sulfate, a gut microbiome-derived metabolite, to anxiety symptoms and specific brain connectivity patterns in patients with depression.

Novel polygenic risk score links depression-related cortical transcriptomic changes to brain morphology and symptom severity

This paper develops a transcriptome-based polygenic risk score (T-PRS) linking depression-related cortical gene expression changes to brain morphology and symptom severity in MDD.

Unraveling the polygenic architecture of complex traits using blood eQTL meta-analysis

The paper uses blood eQTL meta-analysis to explore the polygenic architecture of complex traits, finding that trans-eQTLs are more informative for identifying causal genes than cis-eQTLs.

Education and income show heterogeneous relationships to lifespan brain and cognitive differences across European and US cohorts

The paper examines how education and income relate to brain and cognitive differences across European and US cohorts, finding heterogeneous effects and stronger associations in US samples.

Alterations in Acylcarnitines, Amines, and Lipids Inform about Mechanism of Action of Citalopram/Escitalopram in Major Depression

The paper uses targeted metabolomics to analyze changes in acylcarnitines, amines, and lipids in response to citalopram/escitalopram treatment in MDD patients, identifying metabolic correlates of treatment response.

Identifying Causative Mechanisms Linking Early-Life Stress to Psycho-Cardio-Metabolic Multi-Morbidity: The EarlyCause Project

The paper outlines the protocol for the EarlyCause project, which investigates the biological mechanisms linking early-life stress to psycho-cardio-metabolic multi-morbidity using longitudinal data, animal models, and cellular systems.

Genome-wide association study identifies 48 common genetic variants associated with handedness.

This study identifies 48 genetic variants associated with handedness using a large GWAS, highlighting polygenic nature and genetic links to neuropsychiatric traits.

Controlling for effects of confounding variables on machine learning predictions

Regressing confounds from inputs leaves confound information machine learning models exploit; adjusting the predictions post hoc instead held false-positive rates near 5%, versus up to 100% with input adjustment.

Minimal phenotyping yields GWAS hits of reduced specificity for major depression

This paper shows that GWAS using minimal phenotyping for depression identifies non-specific genetic factors shared with other psychiatric conditions, not specific to major depressive disorder.

Genetic underpinnings of sociability in the UK Biobank

This study identifies genetic variants associated with sociability as a continuous trait and finds genetic correlations with schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and autism spectrum disorders.

A role for vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids in major depression? An exploration using genomics

This study uses genomics to investigate whether vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, or their genetic links are causally or genetically associated with major depression, finding no strong evidence for such relationships.

Beyond accuracy: Measures for assessing machine learning models, pitfalls and guidelines

Evaluating four families of machine learning performance metrics on simulated and public neuroimaging data shows classification accuracy performs worst for statistical power, model comparison, feature selection, and reliability.

Genetic variation in the Major Histocompatibility Complex and association with depression

This study investigates whether genetic variation in the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is associated with depression risk, finding no significant associations at a conservative threshold.