Gholson Lyon MD, PhD

Gholson Lyon’s lab focuses on analyzing human genetic variation and its role in severe neuropsychiatric disorders and rare diseases, including Tourette syndrome, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), intellectual disability, autism, and schizophrenia. By recruiting large groups of related individuals living in the same geographic location (e.g., Utah), Lyon’s lab can study the breadth and depth of genetic variants in a similar environmental background. Using the exome—the parts of the genome that code for protein—and whole-genome sequencing, his lab looks for mutations that segregate with syndromes in the various populations. A second focus of the Lyon lab is to study the mechanistic basis of a new rare disease that they described in 2011. This is the first human disease involving a defect in the amino-terminal acetylation of proteins, a common modification of eukaryotic proteins carried out by amino-terminal acetyltransferases (NATs). The team has been using several different cellular model systems to better understand the disease pathophysiology and the basic process of amino-terminal acetylation. This year, Lyon collaborated with a team of researchers from other universities and companies to use precision medicine to successfully treat a patient with severe OCD. His symptoms were treated with deep brain stimulation, and the team used whole-genome sequencing to try to understand the molecular basis of his disease. The patient experienced significant relief from his symptoms and his quality of life returned, suggesting that similar methods may hold tremendous promise in the future.