Several previous studies have linked impairments of oligodendrocytes and myelination with schizophrenia. Oligodendrocytes are a type of cell in the nervous system that produce myelin, which insulates a neuron’s axon, thereby allowing signals to travel from neuron to neuron more quickly.

In a new study, psychiatric researchers show that the genetic risk for schizophrenia accumulates not only in neurons, but also in oligodendrocytes. For the first time, they are now able to name a mechanism behind the cognitive disorders seen in schizophrenia. Their results are published in Translational Psychiatry.

Peter Falkai, Director of the LMU University Hospital of Psychiatry and Director of the Research Hospital of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (MPI), and his team led by former Ph.D. student from the International Max Planck Research School for Translational Psychiatry (IMPRS-TP) Florian Raabe, established a rapid and robust protocol for induced-pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived oligodendrocytes.