The paper examines how gene dosage, polygenic background, and environment influence complex traits like height and BMI using large-scale data from multiple cohorts.

medRxiv · May 1, 2026 · PreprintGenetic & Genomic Medicine

The Externalizing Spectrum and Suicide Risk: Insights from Genomics and Electronic Health Records in over 500,000 Veterans

Peter B. Barr, Mallory E. Stephenson, Holly E. Poore, Chris Chatzinakos, Maissa Trabilsy, Xuejun Qin, Allison E. Ashley‐Koch, Elizabeth R. Hauser, Jacquelyn Leigh Meyers, Roseann Elizabeth Peterson, Sandra Sanchez‐Roige, Travis T. Mallard, Danielle M. Dick, K. Paige Harden, Mihaela Aslan, , Nathan A. Kimbrel

This study identifies a genetic link between externalizing traits and suicide risk using genomic data and electronic health records from over 500,000 veterans.

medRxiv · Aug 19, 2025 · PreprintGenetic & Genomic Medicine

Correlates of Risk for Disinhibited Behaviors in the Million Veteran Program Cohort

Peter B. Barr, Tim B. Bigdeli, Jacquelyn Leigh Meyers, Roseann Elizabeth Peterson, Sandra Sanchez‐Roige, Travis T. Mallard, Danielle M. Dick, K. Paige Harden, Anna V. Wilkinson, David P. Graham, David A. Nielsen, Alan C. Swann, Rachele K. Lipsky, Thomas R. Kosten, Mihaela Aslan, , Aimee R. Mayeda

This study identifies correlates of risk for disinhibited behaviors in veterans using polygenic scores and electronic health records, finding strong associations with substance use disorders and related health outcomes.

JAMA Psychiatry · Nov 8, 2023Peer-reviewedGenetic & Genomic Medicine

Penetrance and Pleiotropy of Polygenic Risk Scores for Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, and Depression in the VA Health Care System

Tim B. Bigdeli, Georgios Voloudakis, Peter B. Barr, Bryan R. Gorman, Giulio Genovese, Roseann Elizabeth Peterson, David Burstein, Vlad I. Velicu, Yuli Li, Rishab Gupta, Manuel Mattheisen, Simone Tomasi, Nallakkandi Rajeevan, Frederick G. Sayward, Krishnan Radhakrishnan, , Panos Roussos

The paper validates polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression using VA EHR data and shows their association with disease risk and hospitalization.

medRxiv · Feb 16, 2022 · PreprintGenetic & Genomic Medicine

Modeling the longitudinal changes of ancestry diversity in the Million Veteran Program

Frank R. Wendt, Gita A. Pathak, Jacqueline M. Vahey, Xuejun Qin, Dóra Koller, Brenda Cabrera‐Mendoza, Angela M. Haeny, Kelly M. Harrington, Nallakkandi Rajeevan, Linh My Duong, Daniel F. Levey, Flavio De Angelis, Antonella De Lillo, Tim B. Bigdeli, Saiju Pyarajan, , Renato A Polimanti

This study analyzes ancestry diversity changes in the Million Veteran Program over time and shows that refined ancestry modeling reduces population stratification in GWAS of height.

bioRxiv · Jan 24, 2022 · PreprintGenomics

GWAS of Depression Phenotypes in the Million Veteran Program and Meta-analysis in More than 1.2 Million Participants Yields 178 Independent Risk Loci

Daniel F. Levey, Murray B. Stein, Frank R. Wendt, Gita A. Pathak, Hang Zhou, Mihaela Aslan, Rachel M. Quaden, Kelly M. Harrington, Yaira Z. Nuñez, Cassie M. Overstreet, Krishnan Radhakrishnan, Gerard Sanacora, Andrew Mark McIntosh, Jingchunzi Shi, Suyash Shringarpure, , Joel E. Gelernter

This study identifies 178 independent risk loci for depression through a large meta-analysis across multiple cohorts, including fine-mapping and transcriptome-wide association findings.

Nature Neuroscience · May 27, 2021Peer-reviewedGenetic & Genomic Medicine

Reproducible Risk Loci and Psychiatric Comorbidities in Anxiety: Results from ~200,000 Million Veteran Program Participants

Daniel F. Levey, Joel E. Gelernter, Renato A Polimanti, Hang Zhou, Zhongshan Cheng, Mihaela Aslan, Rachel M. Quaden, John Concato, Krishnan Radhakrishnan, Julien Bryois, Patrick F. Sullivan, Million Veteran Program, Murray B. Stein

This paper conducts GWAS on anxiety traits in the Million Veteran Program, identifying significant genetic loci and demonstrating genetic overlap with depression.

American Journal of Psychiatry · Jan 7, 2020Peer-reviewedGenetics

Genomic Characterization of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in a Large US Military Veteran Sample

Murray B. Stein, Daniel F. Levey, Zhongshan Cheng, Frank R. Wendt, Kelly M. Harrington, Kelly Cho, Rachel M. Quaden, Krishnan Radhakrishnan, Matthew J. Girgenti, Yuk-Lam Anne Ho, Daniel C. Posner, VA Million Veteran Program, VA Cooperative Studies Program, Mihaela Aslan, Ronald S. Duman, , Joel E. Gelernter

This study identifies genetic loci associated with PTSD and its symptoms using a large veteran cohort, showing high genetic correlations between symptom sub-domains and potential drug targets.

bioRxiv · Sep 10, 2019 · PreprintGenetics