Professor

Arturas Petronis

Neurosciences and Clinical Translation

MD, PhD

Website

Location

Centre for Addiction & Mental Health

Address

The Krembil Family Epigenetics Laboratory, 250 College street, Toronto, Ontario Canada M5T 1R8

Appointment Status

Primary

Qualification

MD, 1986, Kaunas Medical Institute, Kaunas, Lithuania.
PhD, 1991, Centre for Medical Genetics and Brain Research Institute Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow.

Research Synopsis

Over the last 20 years I have been arguing that in addition to genetic and environmental influence, epigenetic mechanisms, may be operating in the etiopathogenesis of complex disease. Epigenetics refers to regulation of various genomic functions that are brought about by heritable, but potentially reversible changes in DNA modification and chromatin structure. Putative epigenetic misregulation may explain numerous epidemiological, clinical, and molecular complexities in cancer, schizophrenia, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, among numerous other complex diseases. Our CAMH Epigenetics group has performed a series of large scale epigenomic studies in normal and affected tissues of individuals affected with psychiatric diseases. Our most recent developments are related to the uncovering the dynamic relationship between “time” and epigenetics. We are trying to understand why epigenetic regulation is changing in the aging cells and tissues, and what mechanisms are involved in epigenetic aging. All this effort should help understanding why psychotic symptoms do not present themselves in childhood and why it takes nearly two decades for their appearance.

Recent Publications

1. Khare T, Pai S, Koncevicius K, Pal M, Kriukiene E, Liutkeviciute Z, Irimia M, Jia P, Ptak C, Xia M, Tice R, Moréra S, Nazarians A, Belsham D, Wong AHC, Blencowe BJ, Wang SC, Kapranov P, Kustra R, Labrie V, Klimasauskas S, Petronis A. 5-hmC in the brain: abundance in synaptic genes and differences at the exon-intron boundary. Nature Structural and Molecular Biology 19(10):1037-43, 2012.

2. Kriukienė E, Labrie V, Khare T, Urbanavičiūtė G, Lapinaitė A, Koncevičius K, Li D, Wang T, Pai S, Ptak C, Gordevičius J, Wang SC, Petronis A, Klimašauskas S. DNA unmethylome profiling via covalent capture of CpG sites. Nature Communications, 23; 4:2190, 2013.

3. Oh G, Wang SC, Pal M, Chen ZF, Khare T, Tochigi M, Ng C, Yang YA, Kwan A, Kaminsky ZA, Mill J, Gunasinghe C, Tackett JL, Gottesman II, Willemsen G, de Geus EJ, Vink JM, Slagboom PE, Wray NR, Heath AC, Montgomery GW, Turecki G, Martin NG, Boomsma DI, McGuffin P, Kustra R, Petronis A. DNA modification study of major depressive disorder: beyond locus-by-locus comparisons. Biological Psychiatry. 2015; 77(3):246-55.

4. Pal M, Ebrahimi S, Oh G, Khare T, Zhang A, Kaminsky ZA, Wang SC, Petronis A. High precision DNA modification analysis of HCG9 in major psychosis. Schizophr Bull. 2016 Jan;42(1):170-7.

5. Oh G, Ebrahimi S, Wang SC, Cortese R, Kaminsky ZA, Gottesman II, Burke JR, Plassman BL, Petronis A. Epigenetic assimilation in the aging human brain. Genome Biol. 2016; 17(1):76.

6. Labrie V, Buske OJ, Oh E, Jeremian R, Ptak C, Gasiūnas G, Maleckas A, Petereit R, Žvirbliene A, Adamonis K, Kriukienė E, Koncevičius K, Gordevičius J, Nair A, Zhang A, Ebrahimi S, Oh G, Šikšnys V, Kupčinskas L, Brudno M, Petronis A. Lactase nonpersistence is directed by DNA-variation-dependent epigenetic aging. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2016; 23(6):566-73. 7. Gagliano SA, Ptak C, Mak DY, Shamsi M, Oh G, Knight J, Boutros PC, Petronis A. Allele-Skewed DNA Modification in the Brain: Relevance to a Schizophrenia GWAS. Am J Hum Genet. 2016; 98(5):956-62.

8. Oh G, Ebrahimi S, Carlucci M, Zhang A, Nair A, Groot DE, Labrie V, Jia P, Oh ES, Jeremian RH, Susic M, Shrestha TC, Ralph MR, Gordevičius J, Koncevičius K, Petronis A. Cytosine modifications exhibit circadian oscillations that are involved in epigenetic diversity and aging. Nature Communications 2018 Feb 13;9(1):644.

Appointments

The Tapscott Chair for Schizophrenia Studies, University of Toronto (2010)

Honours and Awards

Name:
Description:

1993 Jr. Investigator Award, World Congress on Psychiatric Genetics

1992-95 Medical Research Council and Schizophrenia Society of Canada Fellowship

1997-2001 New Investigator Award, Ontario Mental Health Foundation,Canada

1999, 2001 NARSAD Young Investigator Awards, New York, USA

1998 Award for the Best Presentation, 24th Harvey Stancer Research Day, University of Toronto

1999 Award of the DNA Methylation Society. FASEB Conference on Biological Methylation, USA

2001-2006 Intermediate Research Fellowship, Ontario Mental Health Foundation, Canada

2003, 2005 NARSAD Independent Investigator Awards, New York, USA

2006-2012 Senior Research Fellow, Ontario Mental Health Foundation, Canada

2013 John Dewan Prize, Ontario Mental Health Foundation, Canada

Grants

Supported by CIHR, NIH, and Brain Canada