The paper introduces an AI-assisted GWAS pipeline to compare genetic associations across psychiatric datasets, identifying sex-biased schizophrenia loci near CYP26B1 and EXOC6B.

medRxiv · Jul 1, 2026 · PreprintGenetic & Genomic Medicine

Integrative Genome-Wide Association Studies of COVID-19 Susceptibility and Hospitalization Reveal Risk Loci for Long COVID

Zhongshan Cheng

This study identifies 62 candidate risk loci for long COVID using GWAS data and finds most show weaker associations with long COVID compared to acute-phase COVID-19.

medRxiv · Feb 13, 2025 · PreprintGenetic & Genomic Medicine

GWAS including 82,707 subjects identifies functional coding variant in OPRM1 gene associated with opioid use disorder

Hang Zhou, Christopher T. Rentsch, Zhongshan Cheng, Rachel L. Kember, Yaira Z. Nuñez, Richard Sherva, Janet P. Tate, Cecilia Dao, Ke Xu, Renato A Polimanti, Lindsay A. Farrer, Amy C. Justice, Henry R. Kranzler, Joel E. Gelernter, Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program

JAMA Psychiatry · Jun 3, 2020Peer-reviewedGenetic & Genomic Medicine

Meta-analysis of problematic alcohol use in 435,563 individuals identifies 29 risk variants and yields insights into biology, pleiotropy and causality

Hang Zhou, Julia Sealock, Sandra Sanchez‐Roige, Toni‐Kim Clarke, Daniel F. Levey, Zhongshan Cheng, Boyang Li, Renato A Polimanti, Rachel L. Kember, Rachel Vickers‐Smith, Johan H. Thygesen, Marsha Yvonne Morgan, Stephen R. Atkinson, Mark R. Thursz, Mette Nyegaard, , Joel E. Gelernter

This study identifies 29 risk variants for problematic alcohol use through a large meta-analysis and explores its genetic relationships with other traits.

Nature Neuroscience · May 25, 2020Peer-reviewedGenetics

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

A catalog of cis-regulatory mutations in 12 major cancer types

Zhongshan Cheng, Michael Vermeulen, Micheal Rollins-Green, Brian DeVeale, Tomas Babak

The paper identifies 301 non-coding somatic mutations affecting gene expression in 12 cancer types using TCGA data and shows they have features of noncoding drivers.

bioRxiv · Jul 29, 2019 · PreprintGenomics

Genome-wide Association Study of Alcohol Consumption and Use Disorder in Multiple Populations (N = 274,424)

Henry R. Kranzler, Hang Zhou, Rachel L. Kember, Rachel Vickers‐Smith, Amy C. Justice, Scott M. Damrauer, Philip S. Tsao, Derek M. Klarin, Daniel James Rader, Zhongshan Cheng, Janet P. Tate, William C. Becker, John Concato, Ke Xu, Renato A Polimanti, , On Behalf of the VA Million Veteran Program

This study identifies 18 genome-wide significant loci for alcohol consumption and AUD, finds genetic overlap but also divergence, and highlights the role of central nervous system cells.

bioRxiv · Jan 25, 2019 · PreprintGenetics