The Turecki Lab

Principal Investigator: Gustavo Turecki, MD, PhD

Research Areas

Clinical phenotypes associated with suicidal behaviour
Molecular changes associated with early-life adversity, mood disorders and their comorbidities, and suicide
- DNA modifications
- Histone modifications
- Noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs; lncRNAs, miRNAs, etc.)
- Polyamines
- Inflammatory markers
Biomarkers of MDD treatment response or relapse and suicidal events
- Molecular biomarkers
- Neural correlates
Gene expression studies

Suicide brain banking

Contributions to the Suicide Section of the Douglas-Bell Canada Brain Bank

Key publications

Lutz, P.E., et al. Association of a History of Child Abuse With Impaired Myelination in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex: Convergent Epigenetic, Transcriptional, and Morphological Evidence. The American journal of psychiatry 174, 1185-1194 (2017). PMID: 28750583.
Lopez, J.P., et al. MicroRNAs 146a/b-5 and 425-3p and 24-3p are markers of antidepressant response and regulate MAPK/Wnt-system genes. Nature communications 8, 15497 (2017). PMID: 28530238.
Gross, J.A., et al. Gene-body 5-hydroxymethylation is associated with gene expression changes in the prefrontal cortex of depressed individuals. Translational psychiatry 7, e1119 (2017). PMID: 28485726.
Turecki G, Brent DA. Suicide and suicidal behaviour. Lancet 2016;387(10024):1227-1239. PMID:26385066.
Cruceanu C, et al. Transcriptome Sequencing of the Anterior Cingulate in Bipolar Disorder: Dysregulation of G Protein-Coupled Receptors. Am J Psychiatry 2015;172(11):1131-40. PMID: 26238605.
Nagy C, et al. Astrocytic abnormalities and global DNA methylation patterns in depression and suicide. Molecular psychiatry 2015;20(3):320-328. PMID:24662927.
Turecki G. The molecular bases of the suicidal brain. Nature reviews. Neuroscience 2014;15(12):802-816. PMID:25354482.
Lopez JP, et al. miR-1202 is a primate-specific and brain-enriched microRNA involved in major depression and antidepressant treatment. Nat Med 2014;20(7):764-8. PMID: 24908571.
Lopez JP, et al. Epigenetic regulation of BDNF expression according to antidepressant response. Mol Psychiatry 2013;18(4):398-9. PMID: 22547115.
Labonte B, et al. Genome-wide epigenetic regulation by early-life trauma. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2012;69(7):722-31. PMID: 22752237.
Turecki G, et al. The neurodevelopmental origins of suicidal behavior. Trends in neurosciences 2012;35(1):14-23. PMID:22177979.
Mamdani F, et al. Gene expression biomarkers of response to citalopram treatment in major depressive disorder. Transl Psychiatry 2011;1:e13. PMID: 22832429.
McGowan PO, et al. Epigenetic regulation of the glucocorticoid receptor in human brain associates with childhood abuse. Nat Neurosci 2009;12(3):342-8. PMID: 19234457.
Ernst C, et al. Alternative splicing, methylation state, and expression profile of tropomyosin-related kinase B in the frontal cortex of suicide completers. Archives of general psychiatry 2009;66(1):22-32. PMID:19124685.
McGirr A, et al. Familial aggregation of suicide explained by cluster B traits: a three-group family study of suicide controlling for major depressive disorder. The American journal of psychiatry 2009;166(10):1124-1134. PMID:19755577.
Brezo J, et al. Predicting suicide attempts in young adults with histories of childhood abuse. The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science 2008;193(2):134-139. PMID:18669998.
Sequeira A, et al. Implication of SSAT by gene expression and genetic variation in suicide and major depression. Archives of general psychiatry 2006;63(1):35-48.
Dumais A, et al. Risk factors for suicide completion in major depression: a case-control study of impulsive and aggressive behaviors in men. The American journal of psychiatry 2005;162(11):2116-2124. PMID:16263852.