Andrew Heath

Additional Titles & Roles

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• Professor of Genetics
• Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences

Education & Training

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• Ph.D.: University of Oxford, 1983
• B.A.: University of Oxford, 1979

Major Awards

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• RSA Distinguished Investigator Award, 2003

Areas of Clinical Interest

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Research only

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Research Interests

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Behavioral and psychiatric genetics, genetic epidemiology, particularly focusing on the interplay of genetic and environmental risk factors in the etiology of substance use disorder, eating disorder and obesity, and childhood emotional and behavioral disorders. Gene-mapping studies of substance use disorders. Prospective high-risk studies of pre-adolescent twins and adolescent twins/siblings and their families, and of twin pairs and their adolescent children. Studies of the gut microbiome in human obesity and metabolic dysfunction.

Formulation of models, development and implementation of methods of data analysis, and data collection to resolve the joint contributions of genetic and environmental risk factors, and their covariation and interaction, to risk of psychiatric disorder, and to behavioral variation. Dissection of genetic and non-genetic causes for the familial aggregation of risk.

Recent Publications

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• Shared genetic architecture of posttraumatic stress disorder with cardiovascular imaging, risk, and diagnoses

  Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, Dec 2025, In: Nature communications. 16, 1, 5631.

• Multi-ancestral genome-wide association study of clinically defined nicotine dependence reveals strong genetic correlations with other substance use disorders and health-related traits

  Johnson, E. C., Lai, D., Balbona, J. V., Miller, A. P., Hatoum, A. S., Deak, J. D., Jennings, M., Baranger, D. A. A., Galimberti, M., Sanichwankul, K., Thorgeirsson, T., Colbert, S. M. C., Adhikari, K., Docherty, A. R., Degenhardt, L., Edwards, T., Fox, L., Giannelis, A., Jeffries, P. W. & Korhonen, T. & 47 others, Morrison, C. L., Nunez, Y. Z., Palviainen, T., Su, M. H., Romero Villela, P. N., Wetherill, L., Willoughby, E. A., Zellers, S. M., Bierut, L. J., Buchwald, J., Copeland, W. E., Corley, R. P., Friedman, N. P., Foroud, T. M., Gillespie, N. A., Gizer, I. R., Heath, A. C., Hickie, I. B., Kaprio, J., Keller, M. C., Lee, J. J., Lind, P., Madden, P. A., Maes, H. H. M., Martin, N. G., McGue, M., Medland, S. E., Nelson, E. C., Pearson, J., Porjesz, B., Stallings, M. C., Vrieze, S., Wilhelmson, K. C., Kranzler, H. R., Walters, R. K., Polimanti, R., Malison, R., Zhou, H., Stefansson, K., Sanchez-Roige, S., Potenza, M., Mutirangura, A., Shotelersuk, V., Kalayasiri, R., Edenberg, H. J., Gelernter, J. & Agrawal, A., Aug 20 2025, In: Psychological medicine. 55, e234.

• “General Addiction Liability” Revisited

  Watts, A. L., Sher, K. J., Heath, A. C., Steinley, D. & Brusco, M., Mar 2025, In: Clinical Psychological Science. 13, 2, p. 242-260 19 p.

• Childhood Experiences of Corporal Punishment and Associated Intimate Partner Violence Perpetration and Victimization in Adulthood: Results from a Longitudinal Twin Study

  Poulsen, A., Mathews, B., Egan, N., Garwood-Gowers, A., Forder, P., Loxton, D., Madden, P., Heath, A. & Nelson, E., 2025, (Accepted/In press) In: Journal of Family Violence. 100044.

• Potential causal association between gut microbiome and posttraumatic stress disorder

  He, Q., Wang, W., Xu, D., Xiong, Y., Tao, C., You, C., Ma, L., Ma, J., Nievergelt, C. M., Maihofer, A. X., Klengel, T., Atkinson, E. G., Chen, C. Y., Choi, K. W., Coleman, J. R. I., Dalvie, S., Duncan, L. E., Logue, M. W., Provost, A. C. & Ratanatharathorn, A. & 165 others, Stein, M. B., Torres, K., Aiello, A. E., Almli, L. M., Amstadter, A. B., Andersen, S. B., Andreassen, O. A., Arbisi, P. A., Ashley-Koch, A. E., Austin, S. B., Avdibegovic, E., Babić, D., Bækvad-Hansen, M., Baker, D. G., Beckham, J. C., Bierut, L. J., Bisson, J. I., Boks, M. P., Bolger, E. A., Børglum, A. D., Bradley, B., Brashear, M., Breen, G., Bryant, R. A., Bustamante, A. C., Bybjerg-Grauholm, J., Calabrese, J. R., Caldas-de-Almeida, J. M., Dale, A. M., Daly, M. J., Daskalakis, N. P., Deckert, J., Delahanty, D. L., Dennis, M. F., Disner, S. G., Domschke, K., Dzubur-Kulenovic, A., Erbes, C. R., Evans, A., Farrer, L. A., Feeny, N. C., Flory, J. D., Forbes, D., Franz, C. E., Galea, S., Garrett, M. E., Gelaye, B., Gelernter, J., Geuze, E., Gillespie, C., Uka, A. G., Gordon, S. D., Guffanti, G., Hammamieh, R., Harnal, S., Hauser, M. A., Heath, A. C., Hemmings, S. M. J., Hougaard, D. M., Jakovljevic, M., Jett, M., Johnson, E. O., Jones, I., Jovanovic, T., Qin, X. J., Junglen, A. G., Karstoft, K. I., Kaufman, M. L., Kessler, R. C., Khan, A., Kimbrel, N. A., King, A. P., Koen, N., Kranzler, H. R., Kremen, W. S., Lawford, B. R., Lebois, L. A. M., Lewis, C. E., Linnstaedt, S. D., Lori, A., Lugonja, B., Luykx, J. J., Lyons, M. J., Maples-Keller, J., Marmar, C., Martin, A. R., Martin, N. G., Maurer, D., Mavissakalian, M. R., McFarlane, A., McGlinchey, R. E., McLaughlin, K. A., McLean, S. A., McLeay, S., Mehta, D., Milberg, W. P., Miller, M. W., Morey, R. A., Morris, C. P., Mors, O., Mortensen, P. B., Neale, B. M., Nelson, E. C., Nordentoft, M., Norman, S. B., O’Donnell, M., Orcutt, H. K., Panizzon, M. S., Peters, E. S., Peterson, A. L., Peverill, M., Pietrzak, R. H., Polusny, M. A., Rice, J. P., Ripke, S., Risbrough, V. B., Roberts, A. L., Rothbaum, A. O., Rothbaum, B. O., Roy-Byrne, P., Ruggiero, K., Rung, A., Rutten, B. P. F., Saccone, N. L., Sanchez, S. E., Schijven, D., Seedat, S., Seligowski, A. V., Seng, J. S., Sheerin, C. M., Silove, D., Smith, A. K., Smoller, J. W., Solovieff, N., Sponheim, S. R., Stein, D. J., Sumner, J. A., Teicher, M. H., Thompson, W. K., Trapido, E., Uddin, M., Ursano, R. J., van den Heuvel, L. L., van Hooff, M., Vermetten, E., Vinkers, C. H., Voisey, J., Wang, Y., Wang, Z., Werge, T., Williams, M. A., Williamson, D. E., Winternitz, S., Wolf, C., Wolf, E. J., Wolff, J. D., Yehuda, R., Young, K. A., Young, R. M. D., Zhao, H., Zoellner, L. A., Liberzon, I., Ressler, K. J., Haas, M. & Koenen, K. C., Dec 2024, In: Translational psychiatry. 14, 1, 67.

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Funded Research Projects

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