Case Study: University of Southern California advances psychiatric disorder research with Illumina HiSeq sequencing

Using Large Sample Sizes and Deep Sequencing to Find the Root Cause for Psychiatric Disorders

The University of Southern California (USC) faced the challenge of identifying the genetic components of psychiatric disorders, which are difficult to capture as risk loci are believed to be broadly spread across the genome. Dr. James Knowles sought a cost-effective method for large-scale genomic studies to achieve the statistical power needed to filter out the noise and find these variations.

Illumina provided the solution with its HiSeq 2000 system and TruSeq Sample Preparation Kits. This technology enabled the USC team to perform deep, whole-genome sequencing of large sample sets at an unprecedented scale and low cost. The results were high-quality data that made previously unimaginable experiments possible, paving the way to discovering causal mutations for complex psychiatric disorders and potentially guiding future treatment.

University of Southern California

James Knowles

Professor of Psychiatry