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Share Your Corporate Citizenship Story On Video In Boston College?s 5th Annual Film Festival

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass., Nov. 14 /CSRwire/ - With 4 billion videos watched on YouTube every day and projections that video will make up 75 percent of Internet traffic in the coming years, communicating by video has gone from a luxury to a necessity for any organization looking to tell its story.

You may already be using video to tell internal and external audiences about your company's corporate citizenship efforts. The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship's 5th annual Film Festival, sponsored by Pitney Bowes, will let you share that story with thousands of viewers and demonstrate how you are using video as a communication tool.

Entry in the Film Festival gives companies an opportunity to inform employees of corporate citizenship efforts while engaging them in the festival voting process. The 60,000 people who viewed the videos in the 2012 Film Festival and voted for their favorite sent a resounding message: There is an audience interested in seeing the corporate citizenship story on video.

Here are the important dates for the 2013 Film Festival:

Submission period: January 4 to February 8. Only one video submission is permitted for each participating company.

Public voting: Voting will take place on the Center for Corporate Citizenship website from February 14 through March 1 to narrow the field to 10 finalists. Finalists will be announced on March 6.

Selection of winner: The 10 finalists will be reviewed by a panel of judges to choose the winner, which will be announced April 22 during the 2013 International Corporate Citizenship Conference in Boston. All 10 finalist videos will be available for viewing at the conference.

In order to win, a company representative must be registered and in attendance at the conference.

Click here for more information on submission guidelines and an entry form.?

The Carroll School of Management Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College is a membership-based knowledge center. Founded in 1985, the Center has a history of leadership in corporate citizenship research and education. The Center engages 400 member companies and more than 10,000 individuals annually to share knowledge and expertise about the practice of corporate citizenship through the Center?s executive education programs, online community, regional programs, and its annual conference. For more information visit the Center?s website at www.BCCorporateCitizenship.org

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/csrwire/PRfeed/~3/Kog4Y7YWp0g/34883-Share-Your-Corporate-Citizenship-Story-On-Video-In-Boston-College-s-5th-Annual-Film-Festival

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Video: The San Diego panda cub has been named ?

>>> no more calls please, we have a winner. the san diego zoo most popular baby has a new name. 15-week-old male giant panda cub will be known as little gift. chinese tradition dictates panda cubs are named 100 days after they're born. the name was chosen by popular vote on the zoo's website beating out miracle, raindrop and water dragon .

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/49813202/

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The biggest obstacle to tax reform? You are

12 hrs.

If Congress and the White House would just fix the tax code - by getting rid of decades of deductions, exemptions and other giveaways ? they could lower tax rates and balance the federal budget.

It sounds like a great idea - until the loophole that's closed is the one that puts money in your pocket.

That?s one big reason Congress?and the White House have been unable to agree on broad-based tax reform for decades.

?Everybody loves to talk about it: ?All we have to do is broaden the tax base, cut all the loopholes and lower tax rates,'?? said Nick Kasprak, an analyst at the Tax Foundation. ?It sounds nice when you don?t get specific about it. But as soon as you start taking about specifics, whatever interest group is behind that tax break is going to fight tooth and nail to keep it.?

Though many Americans think their?taxes are too high, they often overlook how much money they get back from the government ? or avoid paying altogether ? thanks to a long list of deductions, credits and exemptions that make preparing a tax return such an arduous task. From tax-free savings accounts to deductions for gifts to charities, these uncollected taxes amount to a giant pile of stealth government spending.

Some of these tax breaks came about as accidents ? overlooked, unintended consequences of other changes in the tax law. Others were fought for by lobbyists representing industries like home builders or health care providers who benefit directly and indirectly from the?spending and investment incentives created by these tax?provisions.

That?s not surprising, given the amount of money at stake. In 2012, tax breaks?totaled?more than $800 billion? or about one-third of federal revenues. That?s more than the government spends on Social Security, or Medicare or national defense, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Cutting back on those givebacks would go a?long way toward closing the $1.1 trillion deficit.

But that won?t be easy. While voters consistently tell pollsters they strongly support efforts to balance the federal budget, they're equally strong in support of popular?tax deductions for things like home mortgage interest and donations to their favorite charities. No elected official wants to take them away. ?

And while many voters would be happy to?eliminate tax breaks for the wealthy or big corporations, the big money is in tax breaks that hit the largest number of voters ? from a generous package of?deductions for homeowners to the tax-free treatment of health insurance premiums paid by employers.

Proponents of eliminating tax breaks and loopholes argue that doing so would make the system?more fair. ?While providing benefit to a long list of individual taxpayers, they spread the money around unevenly. Homeowners get a basketful of?breaks, for example, while?renters get nothing.

In general, higher-income taxpayers are the biggest winners in the tax break sweepstakes, both because they have more income tax to avoid and because they?re more likely to benefit from the activities targeted by these breaks - owning a house, getting health insurance from an employer or opening? tax deferred retirement account.

But the benefits tend to level off for those at the very highest income levels, because they tend to spend a lower portion of their overall income on areas that are subsidized, according to a study by the Tax Policy Center.

Here are the biggest tax breaks ? and the amount of cash?Uncle Sam would save if they were eliminated.

Health Care:

Insurance premiums:?The biggest single tax break, by far, comes from the subsidy paid for health insurance ?paid by companies for their employees. (The premium paid on your behalf?amounts to income, but?doesn't?show up that way on your tax return, so you don?t pay taxes on it.) Uncle Sam gets hit twice on this one; not only do you pay no tax, your employer gets to deduct premium payments from the company?s tax return. Annual cost:??$180 billion.

Other medical expenses ? those paid out of pocket ? are also deductible, at a cost of $10 billion in uncollected taxes. If you?re self-employed, you get to deduct health insurance premiums, for?another?$6 billion.

Total annual cost: $196 billion

Homeownership:

Mortgage Interest: The government provides all kinds of incentives to buy a house ? including the Federal Reserve?s recent fire sale on mortgage rates. But the biggest, and costliest to the Treasury, is the tax break on interest paid on money borrowed to buy a home. If you?re in, say the 28 percent tax bracket, you get back 28 cents of every dollar you pay in mortgage interest. Last year those pennies added up to roughly 11 percent of the total federal budget deficit. Cost: $101 billion.

Imputed Rent: This is another tax break that favors homeowners over renters. If you own a home, you probably don?t pay yourself rent. But you benefit you derive from the use of your house is worth just as much as a renter would pay. That income ? known as ?imputed rent? ??isn't?taxed. If it were, the revenue generated would pay for about 5 percent of the deficit. Cost: $51 billion.

Capital gains exclusion: When it comes time to sell your house, you may walk away with more than you paid for it. On most investments, you?d pay capital gains tax on the entire profit. But a portion of your capital gain on a home is excluded from capital gains tax. Cost: $23 billion.

Property tax deduction: No one likes to pay income taxes on money they earned to pay other taxes. In the case of property tax on a home you live in, you get a break. Cost: $22 billion.

Total annual cost: $197 billion

Savings, investment and retirement:

Capital Gains and Dividends: Some critics of these investment taxes argue they should be abolished altogether: the current tax code splits the difference by taxing them at a lower rate than ordinary income. That difference ? the cost to the government of lowering the rate ? largely benefits high-income households. In 2011, about three-fourths of the benefit of this tax break went to the top 1 percent of U.S. households. Cost: $77 billion.

Retirement plans: If you participate in a savings plan at work ? like a 401(k) or IRA ? you don?t have to pay taxes on the money you put into the account and, in many cases, the tax on investment gains is postponed until you retire and begin spending it. Cost: $62 billion.

If you?re in a defined-benefit pension plan ? where your employer contributes and you get a monthly check when you retire ? those contributions are also not taxed. Cost: $52 billion.

Investments: You don?t pay taxes on the interest earned on life insurance savings ($25 billion) or on municipal bonds ($36 billion). And when you die, any investment gains on money you leave to your heirs?doesn't?get taxed. ($24 billion).

Total cost: $276 billion

Other big tax breaks:

Charitable donations:?The tax code encourages people to give to their favorite charities, including nonprofit schools, health care providers, and other service organizations. This is another tax break that tends to benefit wealthy taxpayers.?Cost: $49 billion.

State and local taxes: On top of federal taxes, most people also pay state and local taxes, including income and sales taxes. Every tax dollar you paid to another jurisdiction is a dollar you get to exclude from federal taxes.?Cost: $46 billion.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economywatch/biggest-obstacle-tax-reform-you-are-1C7038051

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DARPA asks amateur astronomers to track space junk

9 hrs.

Tracking the thousands of tiny objects cluttering up Earth's orbit is becoming an expensive proposition for the military. To save money and improve their coverage, they're soliciting help from amateur astronomers worldwide.

The DARPA-funded?SpaceView project hopes to organize the astronomy community into an?extension?of the?U.S. Air Force?s own sky-watchers, the?Space Surveillance Network. There are estimated to be around half a million bits of space junk in orbit, but even with 29 space-monitoring sensors at their command, the?Space Surveillance Network?can only track the biggest 30,000 or so.

Deploying a dozen more sensor?arrays and facilities would be expensive, so they're outsourcing junk tracking ? to pretty much anyone who wants to help. Lt.?Col.?Travis Blake, the Air Force officer overseeing the program, explains on the SpaceView website:

There is an untold amount of potential in the amateur astronomy community that we hope to use to broaden our situational awareness in space.?SpaceView should provide more diverse data from different geographic locations to ensure we have a robust understanding of the current and future state of our space assets.

Home astronomers will be given access to "high-quality astronomical hardware," and in return would handle the operation and housing of the gear. When it's not being used for tracking bits of fast-moving space trash, the?government gear could be used for whatever its caretaker wanted: photography, observation, or?teaching, for example.

Getting involved is as simple as signing up for SpaceView's?mailing list and answering some questions regarding expertise and ability to securely?house the equipment. No timeframe is mentioned, but the program is open to sign-ups right now, having begun registration over the weekend at the?Arizona Science and Astronomy Expo in Tucson.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC?News Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/darpa-enlists-amateur-astronomers-track-space-junk-1C7009960

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MacBreak Weekly 325: Calm Down. Have a Cookie.

Sarah Lane once again fills in the cruising Leo Laporte, and talks iPhone 5S rumors, the future of the iOS Home screen (Springboard), HTC and Apple's patent deal, and more, with Andy Ihnatko, Jason Snell, and yours truly.

My pick of the week was Clear for Mac.

And if you were wondering what I was talking about in regards to Springboard, make sure you listen to Debug.

Subscribe or download: TWiT.tv

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/aKic9_I-pbk/story01.htm

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Election blurring of church, state separation draws complaints

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Political watchdog and secularist groups are asking the U.S. government to investigate whether Catholic bishops and a Christian evangelical group headed by preacher Billy Graham should lose tax breaks for telling followers how to vote in this year's election.

Under constitutional protections of free speech and separation of church and state, churches are free to speak on any issue. But they risk losing tax breaks worth $145 billion in the past decade if they violate Internal Revenue Service rules by promoting or opposing any particular candidate. Other non-profits also have special tax status.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a political watchdog group, in its complaint to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, cited reports of individual bishops "abusing their positions to advocate against the election of President Barack Obama."

The group's executive director, Melanie Sloan, said some bishops went too far by saying a vote for Democrats would mean going to hell. "I don't think the Catholic bishops should be intimidating parishioners to advocate for any particular candidate," said Sloan.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation complained to the IRS about possible illegal political campaign intervention by Wisconsin Catholic bishops and the Charlotte, North Carolina-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

IRS spokesman Dean Patterson declined to comment on the complaints or on whether there was any investigation. "Federal law prohibits the IRS from discussing specific taxpayers or situations," Patterson said.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, through its spokeswoman Sister Mary Ann Walsh, said it would not comment on what a bishop says in his diocese.

The Billy Graham group said that its newspaper ads in publications like the Wall Street Journal and USA Today advocated votes for candidates who support "biblical values" but mentioned no candidate or party.

The ads, signed by Graham, asked voters to back candidates who support "the biblical definition of marriage between a man and woman" and who protect "the sanctity of life," an apparent reference to the group's opposition to abortion.

The conference of bishops waged a campaign this year against the Obama administration's health care requirement birth control be covered by health insurance.

Church doctrine is opposed to contraception as a means of birth control. Church leaders also spoke out against same-sex marriage but were on the losing side in four states where the issue was on the ballot.

THE POWER OF THE PULPIT

Nicholas Cafardi, a law professor at Duquesne University who worked for the Catholic diocese of Pittsburgh, said some bishops seemed particularly politically active in this election.

In Cafardi's opinion, the bishops' conference did not cross any tax-law lines but some individual bishops may have done so.

"The larger issue is that, irrespective of what the tax code says, churches should be sacred spaces, free of partisan politics," said Cafardi.

Among those whose political positions created controversy in this campaign season was Springfield, Illinois, Bishop Thomas Paprocki who warned his flock in a letter of "intrinsic evils" in the Democratic platform's support of abortion and same-sex marriage. A vote for someone who promotes such actions "places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy," he said.

Peter Breen, executive director of the Chicago-based Thomas More Society, a law firm focused on Catholic issues, said the complaint against Catholic bishops was meant to frighten people of faith from challenging their political leaders, which religious people have always been called to do.

"That's not electioneering - it's merely making statements about public concern," said Breen of Paprocki's statement. "He's not saying vote for Candidate A as opposed to Candidate B."

Green Bay, Wisconsin, Bishop David Ricken made a statement similar to Paprocki's in an October 24 letter to parishioners, but later said his comments "should not be misunderstood as an endorsement of any political candidates or parties."

In an April sermon, Peoria, Illinois, Bishop Daniel Jenky said Obama, with his "radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path" to that of former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and German dictator Adolf Hitler. The homily is posted on the diocese newspaper's web site.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State urged the IRS in October to investigate a Texas church that advised on its marquee to "Vote for the Mormon, not the Muslim!" - a reference to Mormon Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Obama, who is not a Muslim.

Conservatives were not the only ones getting support from the pulpit. According to an October Pew Research Center report, 40 percent of Black Protestants reported hearing about presidential candidates from clergy at church, and the messages overwhelmingly favored Obama.

Americans United also complained in the 2008 election about a North Carolina Baptist group that invited Michelle Obama to speak at an event that they said appeared to be a campaign rally.

The Reverend Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said the IRS needs to start vigorously enforcing restrictions against political speech by churches.

"This is extraordinarily important - one of the few remaining restrictions on campaign spending," said Lynn. He warned that if churches are allowed to say anything they want politically and keep their tax benefits, "this would be a gigantic new loophole and would not serve the church's interest, or the public's."

(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski; Additional reporting by Nanette Byrnes; Editing by Greg McCune and Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/election-blurring-church-state-separation-draws-complaints-223335442.html

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Petraeus news hit Feinstein like 'lightning bolt'

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The career of David Petraeus, the CIA director and renowned general, was derailed by allegedly vicious emails his paramour sent to another woman. Now the CIA, FBI and White House face questions from Congress about Petraeus' love life and how his emails came under investigation.

And he may not be done with Capitol Hill himself.

Petraeus quit his post Friday after acknowledging an extramarital relationship.

"It was like a lightning bolt," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who leads the Senate intelligence Committee and planned to have Petraeus testify this week on the Sept. 11 attack that killed the U.S. ambassador in Libya and three other Americans.

Feinstein, D-Calif., said he first learned of Petraeus' affair from the media late last week and was dumbstruck when Petraeus confirmed the affair to her in a telephone call Friday. She said she has since been briefed by the FBI but wants to know why the bureau didn't notify her sooner that the CIA chief was at the center of a serious inquiry.

"We are very much able to keep things in a classified setting," she told "Fox News Sunday." ''At least if you know, you can begin to think and then to plan. And, of course, we have not had that opportunity."

Petraeus had been scheduled to appear before the intelligence committees on Thursday to testify on what the CIA knew and what it told the White House before, during and after the attack in Benghazi.

It now falls to the CIA's deputy director, Michael Morell, to answer lawmakers' questions about the attack on the U.S. Consulate and CIA base.

Feinstein said she hasn't ruled out compelling Petraeus to testify about Benghazi at a later date. "We may well ask" him at some point, she said. "I think that's up to the committee."

Meanwhile, Morell and the FBI's deputy director, Sean Joyce, also will be asked for answers about who they informed and when in the Petraeus investigation, in meetings with congressional intelligence committee leaders this Wednesday, according to a senior intelligence committee aide.

The director of national intelligence, James Clapper, was told by the Justice Department of the Petraeus investigation on election night, and then called Petraeus and urged him to resign, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

But the FBI did not inform the committees that oversee the CIA until Friday, after the news about Petraeus broke.

FBI officials have explained that the committees weren't informed, one official said, because the matter started as a criminal investigation into harassing emails sent by Petraeus' biographer, Paula Broadwell, a 40-year-old graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and an Army Reserve officer, to another woman.

The identity of the other woman and her connection with Broadwell were not immediately known, but that probe led agents to Broadwell's email, which uncovered the relationship with Petraeus, a 60-year-old retired four-star general, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press on Saturday.

Concerned that the emails he exchanged with Broadwell raised the possibility of a security breach, the FBI brought the matter up with Petraeus directly, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation.

Petraeus decided to quit, though he was breaking no laws by having an affair, officials said.

"He decided he needed to come clean with the American people," said Steve Boylan, a retired army officer and former Petraeus spokesman who talked with him Saturday.

Petraeus lamented the damage he'd done to his "wonderful family" and the hurt he'd caused his wife, Boylan said. Petraeus has been married for 38 years to Holly Petraeus.

"He screwed up, he knows he screwed up, now he's got to try to get past this with his family and heal," said Boylan.

Feinstein said Sunday that she has not been told the precise relationship between Petraeus and the woman who reported the harassing emails to the FBI. She said she has been told only that she was someone Petraeus "knew and was close to."

Broadwell interviewed the general and his close associates intensively for more than a year to produce the best-selling biography, "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus," which was written with Vernon Loeb, a Washington Post editor, and published in January.

The CIA did not comment on the identity of the woman with whom Petraeus was involved.

Broadwell is married with two young sons. She has not responded to multiple emails and phone messages. She'd planned to celebrate her 40th birthday in Washington this weekend, with many reporters invited. Her husband emailed guests to cancel the party.

CIA officers long had expressed concern about Broadwell's unprecedented access to the director. She frequently visited the spy agency's headquarters in Langley, Va., to meet Petraeus in his office, accompanied him on morning runs around the CIA grounds and often attended public functions as his guest, according to two former intelligence officials.

Petraeus' staff when he was overseeing the war in Afghanistan similarly had been concerned about the time she spent with their boss.

In the preface to her book, Broadwell said she first met Petraeus in the spring of 2006 while she was a graduate student at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

___

Associated Press writer Adam Goldman contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/petraeus-news-hit-feinstein-lightning-bolt-155712077--politics.html

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Schizophrenia genetic networks identified; Connection to autism found

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2012) ? Although schizophrenia is highly genetic in origin, the genes involved in the disorder have been difficult to identify. In the past few years, researchers have implicated several genes, but it is unclear how they act to produce the disorder. A new study by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center identifies affected gene networks and provides insight into the molecular causes of the disease.

The paper was published November 11 in the online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Using an unbiased collection of hundreds of mutations associated with schizophrenia, the Columbia researchers applied a sophisticated computational approach to uncover hidden relationships among seemingly unrelated genes. The analysis revealed that many of the genes mutated in schizophrenia are organized into two main networks, which take part in a few key processes, including axon guidance, synapse function, neuron mobility, and chromosomal modification.

The study also uncovered an intriguing connection between schizophrenia and autism. "If we hadn't known that these were two different diseases, and had put all the mutations into a single analysis, it would have come up with very similar networks," said the study's senior author, Dennis Vitkup, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics, the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, and the Columbia Initiative in Systems Biology at Columbia University Medical Center. "It shows how closely the autism and schizophrenia genetic networks are intertwined," he added.

Although it will take time to translate the findings into practical treatments, the study provides insight into the molecular causes of schizophrenia. It also suggests that mutations associated with schizophrenia, autism, and probably many other psychiatric disorders, are likely to converge on a set of interrelated molecular processes.

Computer analysis uncovers genetic networks

To discover potential connections among genes mutated in schizophrenia, Dr. Vitkup and colleagues developed a computational approach, called NETBAG+, to identify networks of genes likely to be responsible for the same genetic phenotype. They then gathered the strongest mutations that had been observed in schizophrenia by other researchers -- including a set of de novo mutations recently described by a team of Columbia researchers led by Maria Karayiorgou, MD, and Joseph A. Gogos, MD, PhD -- and fed them into the program.

The program uncovered two genetic networks. Genes in the first network are involved primarily in axon guidance, synapse function, and cell migration. Genes in the second network are involved in chromosomal organization and remodeling.

Parts of both networks are highly active during prenatal development, suggesting that changes in the brain that cause schizophrenia later in life are laid down very early in life.

Connection to autism

Dr. Vitkup also compared his schizophrenia networks with networks found in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism. One schizophrenia network is strongly related to an autism network he described in a study published last year. Both networks contain genes involved in axon guidance, synapse function, and cell migration.

"Our recent mutational analysis showed that this overlap includes primarily genes that are important for early fetal development. This is not surprising, because some cases of schizophrenia and likely many cases of autism have neurodevelopmental origin," said Dr. Karayiorgou.

The close relationship between genetic networks involved in autism and schizophrenia raises an intriguing question: How can mutations in the same or related genes cause two different disorders?

"I like to use the analogy of car brakes," said Dr. Vitkup. "Different mechanical malfunctions of the brake mechanism can have very different functional consequences, from rapid acceleration to stalling."

Dr. Vitkup looked at large mutations called copy number variants (CNVs) that can lead to either schizophrenia or autism. CNVs involve long stretches of the genome containing several genes that have been either duplicated or deleted. Duplication of a region increases the "dosage" of its genes; deletion of a region decreases the dosage.

In CNVs involved in the growth of dendrites, or dendritic spines, at the ends of neurons, he found decrease in growth to be more common in schizophrenia and increase in growth more common in autism. "That's consistent with what's been found by postmortem brain studies," he said.

"Evidence of functional convergence among risk genes is consistent with the notion that schizophrenia and autism are both primarily diseases of neuronal communication. However, they have distinct clinical features and the challenge remains to identify the critical neural circuits and mechanisms that differentiate them," said Dr. Joseph A. Gogos. "This is a step in that direction."

Dr. Vitkup predicts that many more genes involved in schizophrenia and autism will eventually be found -- possibly up to 1000 genes for each disorder -- but a significant fraction of them will likely fall into the networks and pathways identified in the current study.

"Until a few years ago, people were looking for just a handful of genes responsible for autism and schizophrenia, so the idea that many hundreds of genes are involved is a big change in thinking," Dr. Vitkup said. "Our study and the studies of our collaborators suggest that in the search for the causes of complex genetic disorders, it will be more productive to look for common pathways and gene circuits than for a handful of causal genes. This type of network analysis gives us a way to begin to make sense of what's happening."

Study points way to future approaches to gene discovery

"To uncover all of the processes and molecular pathways involved in schizophrenia and related disorders, more gene searches are clearly necessary," said Dr. Vitkup.

Until recently, the hunt for disease genes was focused primarily on analyses of common genetic mutations, using so-called genome-wide association studies (GWAS). But according to Drs. Vitkup, Karayiorgou, and Gogos, a complementary, possibly less expensive, approach may be more fruitful. "By looking at individuals with schizophrenia who are born into families with no history of the disorder," Dr. Vitkup said, "we can identify de novo mutations that are likely to have caused their disorder."

Drs. Karayiorgou and Gogos recently used this approach to uncover many dozens of new schizophrenia mutations from several hundred families; nearly every mutation was unique to one patient.

"Our study demonstrates that through network-based analyses of rare de novo mutations, it is possible to implicate relevant molecular processes," said Dr. Vitkup. "Applying similar methods to larger cohorts of patients, we should be able to delineate all of the pathways and molecular processes underlying complex psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Columbia University Medical Center, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Sarah R Gilman, Jonathan Chang, Bin Xu, Tejdeep S Bawa, Joseph A Gogos, Maria Karayiorgou, Dennis Vitkup. Diverse types of genetic variation converge on functional gene networks involved in schizophrenia. Nature Neuroscience, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nn.3261

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/QCNFYa1stxo/121111153933.htm

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