In today’s New York Times, Benedict Carey and I have a feature about two big pieces of news on the search for genes involved in psychiatric diseases. After many years of struggle, a new paper published today shows how scientists are starting to build a catalog of these genes–in this case, over 100 genes associated with schizophrenia. The paper coincides with the other big piece of news we report on: the announcement of a $650 million gift to the Broad Institute (one of the partners in the new study) from a family that has been personally affected by psychiatric diseases–the biggest gift for psychiatric research ever.

There are lots of issues at play here. For one thing, it speaks