Professor James T.R. Walters

Professor James Walters is an academic psychiatrist and Director of the MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics in Cardiff University. James’s major research interests centre on advancing understanding of the molecular genomics of psychosis and schizophrenia. He uses genomic approaches to gain insight into the basis of psychosis and schizophrenia and is particularly interested in studying the genetic, biological and psychosocial factors associated with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. He founded and leads the CLOZUK study, the world’s largest collection of genetic samples from those with schizophrenia. He is co-chair of the Schizophrenia Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium bringing together over 300 international researchers and over 75,000 research participants. He and the Cardiff team seek to use knowledge from these studies to gain biological insights into the underlying nature of these disorders, to investigate how genetics relates to symptoms and outcomes in mood and psychotic disorders, and ultimately to improve diagnosis and treatment for those with psychosis and schizophrenia. To achieve these aims, genomic datasets need to be linked with rich clinical data and other large-scale research data such as measures of cognition and social risk factors; James is working with collaborators and research partners to create such data resources. 

He is also an honorary consultant psychiatrist working with patients and families with psychosis and schizophrenia and co-leads a new service at the crossover between psychiatry and clinical genetics.