Silviu-Alin Bacanu

Silviu-Alin Bacanu is a Professor at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). He holds a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh (1998). His research focuses on statistical genetics method development and applied analyses of psychiatric genetic data, including GWAS, rare variants, sequencing, pharmacogenetic, copy number, and epigenetic studies. Key contributions include methods for analyzing genetic variants in genomic regions and selecting suggestive signals in genome scans, implemented in public software. His applied work addresses psychiatric disorders, leveraging standard and custom R tools for non-standard analyses.

• Education: PhD in 1998 from University of Pittsburgh

Research interests span statistical genetics tools, psychiatric data analysis, and translational applications. Recent work emphasizes polygenic risk scores, pedigree-based genetic liability, and multi-omics approaches for disorders like depression, PTSD, and alcohol use disorder. Collaborates widely via initiatives like the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC).

Advising/Grants: No students listed, but active in collaborative research projects. His lab focuses on computational genetics and molecular mechanisms underlying mental health conditions.

Labs/Teams: Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, with interdisciplinary teams studying psychiatric and behavioral genetics.