RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Transcriptional signatures of schizophrenia in hiPSC-derived NPCs and neurons are concordant with signatures from post mortem adult brains JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 185546 DO 10.1101/185546 A1 Gabriel E. Hoffman A1 Brigham J. Hartley A1 Erin Flaherty A1 Ian Ladran A1 Peter Gochman A1 Doug Ruderfer A1 Eli A. Stahl A1 Judith Rapoport A1 Pamela Sklar A1 Kristen J. Brennand YR 2017 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/09/07/185546.abstract AB Whereas highly penetrant variants have proven well-suited to human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-based models, the power of hiPSC-based studies to resolve the much smaller effects of common variants within the size of cohorts that can be realistically assembled remains uncertain. In developing a large case/control schizophrenia (SZ) hiPSC-derived cohort of neural progenitor cells and neurons, we identified and accounted for a variety of technical and biological sources of variation. Reducing the stochastic effects of the differentiation process by correcting for cell type composition boosted the SZ signal in hiPSC-based models and increased the concordance with post mortem datasets. Because this concordance was strongest in hiPSC-neurons, it suggests that this cell type may better model genetic risk for SZ. We predict a growing convergence between hiPSC and post mortem studies as both approaches expand to larger cohort sizes. For studies of complex genetic disorders, to maximize the power of hiPSC cohorts currently feasible, in most cases and whenever possible, we recommend expanding the number of individuals even at the expense of the number of replicate hiPSC clones.