New Gene That Causes Intellectual Disability Identified, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and Collaborators Study Reveals

A new study involving Canada's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has found a gene connected with a type of intellectual disability called Joubert syndrome. CAMH Senior Scientist Dr. John Vincent has identified this gene that, when defective, leads to Joubert syndrome. This research is published in the 13 May 2011 issue of Cell. This international study combined Dr. Vincent's gene mapping of a family with Joubert syndrome, with the use of a protein network map established by researchers at Genentech Inc., Stanford University and the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). Together this approach identified two genes associated with the group of disorders called ciliopathies.