Placenta May Connect Mom to Offspring's Schizophrenia

Genes expressed by the placenta as a result of pregnancy complications may play a key role in predisposing offspring to develop schizophrenia, according to an international team of scientists headed by researchers at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development (LIBD), which is on the Johns Hopkins Medical Campus. In contrast with prior studies that have focused on how genes implicated in behavioral disorders directly alter prenatal brain development, the new studies, reported in Nature Medicine (