Faculty Details for Dr. Gary Heiman
Research Assistant Professor
Contact Information
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Office: LSB-125 Phone: 732-445-1027 ext 40033 Fax: 732-445-1147 Email: heiman@biology.rutgers.edu |
Life Sciences Bldg. Rutgers University 145 Bevier Road Piscataway, NJ, 08854 |
Research
The focus of my research is at the intersection between genetics, psychiatry, and neurology. Many neurological disorders are highly comorbid with psychiatric disorders, but the cause of this comorbidity is unknown. Possible explanations include a reaction to having a chronic stigmatizing disorder (i.e., reactive effects), a common pathophysiological pathway, treatment effects (i.e., iatrogenic), and a shared etiology. Using genetic information, the goal of my research is to distinguish among these hypotheses and, in particular, to test the hypothesis that the comorbidity is due, in part, to a shared genetic susceptibility.
Currently, I am the director of the New Jersey Center for Tourette Syndrome Sharing Repository; a cell and DNA repository for Tourette Syndrome and associated disorders. We seek to identify genetic factors that affect the liability toward developing Tourette Syndrome, chronic tics, and related clinical entities including obsessive compulsive disorder. The ultimate goal is to establish a sharing resource of clinical data, DNA and, possibly, lymphoblastoid cell lines that can be accessed by qualified researchers from throughout the world.
I am also investigating the genetic relationship between epilepsy and depression. Depression is the most common comorbid condition in epilepsy, affecting between 20-55% of patients with refractory epilepsy and 3-9% of patients with well-controlled seizures. The cause of this comorbidity is unknown. I am conducting a series of genetic epidemiologic studies to test the hypothesis that the comorbidity is due, in part, to a shared genetic susceptibility. Identifying a shared genetic susceptibility would help identify individuals at high risk for both disorders, allow for early intervention, and increase understanding of pathogenesis.
In collaboration with the Department of Neurology at Beth Israel Medical Center in NYC, we are conducting a number of studies including: 1) investigating psychiatric manifestations of the DYT1 dystonia gene; 2) investigating various clinical manifestations, including psychiatric symptoms, in a genetic form of Parkinson’s disease; and 3) investigating the long term clinical course of DYT1 dystonia carriers to determine if any other signs or symptoms appear later in life.
I am the chair of the Columbia University Seminar in Genetic Epidemiology. The purpose of this seminar is to bring together researchers in human genetics, epidemiology, and related disciplines, to discuss issues of common interest including genetic and environmental contributions to disease, and gene-environment interaction.
Selected Publications
View Dr. Heiman's publication list in PubMed
Saunders-Pullman R, Shriberg J, Heiman GA, Raymond R, Wendt K, Kramer P, Schilling K, Kurlan R, Klein C, Ozelius LJ, Risch NJ, PhD and Bressman SB. The spectrum of myoclonus dystonia: Possible association with OCD and alcohol dependence. Neurology 58: 242-245, 2002.Ahsan H, Hodge SE, Heiman GA, Begg MD and Susser ES. Relative risk for genetic associations: the case-parent triad as a variant of case-cohort design. Int. J. Epidemiol. 31(3): 669-678, 2002.
Hamilton SP, Fyer AJ, Durner, M, Heiman GA, de Leon AB, Hodge SE, Knowles JA, and Weissman MM. Further genetic evidence for a panic disorder syndrome mapping to chromosome 13q. Proc Natl Acad Sci 100(5): 2550-2555, 2003.
Weissman MM, Gross R, Fyer, AF, Heiman GA, Gameroff MJ, Hodge SE, Kaufman D, Kaplan SA and Wickramaratne P. Interstitial cystitis and panic disorder: A potential genetic syndrome. Arch Gen Psych 61:273 - 279, 2004.
Heiman GA, Ottman R, Saunders-Pullman R, Ozelius LJ, Risch NJ, and Bressman SB. Increased risk for recurrent major depression in DYT1 dystonia mutation carriers. Neurology 63(4): 631-637, 2004.
Heiman GA, Hodge SE, Gorroochurn P, Zhang J, and Greenberg DA. Effect of population stratification on case-control association studies. I: elevation in false positive rates and comparison to confounding risk ratios (a simulation study). Hum Hered 58:30-39, 2004.
Gorroochurn P, Hodge SE, Heiman GA, and Greenberg DA. Effect of population stratification on case-control association studies. II: false-positive rates and their limiting behavior as number of subpopulations increases. Hum Hered 58:40-48, 2004.
Tsai WY, Heiman GA, and Hodge SE. Simple Tests for age-at-onset anticipation: Application to panic disorder. Genet Epidemiol 28:256-260, 2005.
Gorroochurn P, Heiman GA, Hodge SE, and Greenberg DA. Centralizing the non-central chi-square: a new method to correct for population stratification in genetic case-control association studies. Genet Epidemiol 30: 277-289, 2006.
Fyer A.J, Hamilton SP, Durner M, Haghighi F, Heiman GA, Costa R, Evrafov O, Adams P, deLeon A, Taveras N, Klein DF, Hodge SE, Weissman MM, and Knowles JA. A Third-Pass Genome Scan in Panic Disorder: Evidence for Multiple Susceptibility Loci. Biol Psychiatry 60(4): 388-401, 2006.
Heiman GA, Ottman R, Saunders-Pullman R, Ozelius LJ, Risch NJ, and Bressman SB. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is not a manifestation of the DYT1 dystonia mutation. Am J Med Genet Part B (Neuropsychiatr Genet) 144B:361–364, 2007.
Hess CW, Raymond D, de Carvalho Aguiar P, Frucht S, Shriberg J, Heiman GA, Kurlan R, Klein C, Bressman SB, Ozelius LF, and Saunders-Pullman R. Myoclonus-dystonia and the association with obsessive-compulsive disorder and alcohol dependence in manifesting SGCE carriers. Neurology 68: 522-524, 2007.
Gorroochurn P, Hodge SE, Heiman GA, Durner M, and Greenberg DA. Non-replication in association studies: 'pseudo-failures' to replicate? Genet Med 9: 325-331, 2007.
Gorroochurn P, Hodge SE, Heiman GA, and Greenberg DA. Invited original paper: A unified approach for quantifying, testing and correcting population stratification in association studies. Hum Hered 64: 149-159, 2007.
Heiman GA, Ogburn B, Gorroochurn P, Keyes K, and Hasin, DS. Evidence for a two-stage model of dependence using the NESARC and its implications for genetic association studies. Drug Alcohol Depend. 92: 258–266, 2008.
Choi H, Heiman GA, Pandis D, Cantero J, Resor SR, Gilliam FG, and Hauser WA. Seizure Remission and Relapse in Adults with Intractable Epilepsy: A Cohort Study. Epilepsia 49(8):1440–1445, 2008.
Heiman GA, King RA, and Tischfield JA. New Jersey Center for Tourette Syndrome Sharing Repository: methods and sample description. BMC Medical Genomics 1:58, 2008.