Prof. Dr. Artūras Petronis

El.p.:

ORCID

Epigenetics, chrono-epigenetics, brain disease, complex non-Mendelian disease, etiology, systems biology

MD Kauno medicinos institutas 1986; PhD SSSR MA Smegenų tyrimų institutas 1991; PDF Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto Canada 1995

2010-2020 The Tapscott Chair for Schizophrenia Studies, University of Toronto
2002-2008 Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
2002-2006 Research Scientist, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto
1997-2002 Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
1992-1995 Postdoctoral Fellow, Neurogenetics section, Clarke Institute, Toronto
1988-1991 Graduate Student, Brain Research Institute Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow
1987-1988 Research Fellow, Vilnius University, Laboratory of Psychiatric Disorders

Graduate course “Molecular mechanisms of aging”. Vilnius university, 2023, 2024, 2025.
Seminar Series in Translational Research. Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Toronto. MSC1010Y-1011Y November 2018
Neuroscience School of Advanced Studies; Siena, Italy. August 2017
Neuroscience School of Advanced Studies; Florence, Italy. August 2015
MSc/PhD Seminar Course. Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. MSC1010Y 2012
Normal and Abnormal Behavior: The Epigenetic Perspective. Swiss Etiological Study of Adjustment and Mental Health (SESAM). Summer school. University of Basel, Switzerland. August 27-30, 2007
Molecular Medicine Program "Advanced Concepts in Human Genetic Disease" (MSC 2010). Directors: Drs. L. Osborne and S. Scherer. Institute of Medical Science, and University of Toronto. 1999- 2006
PGY1 Core Core Curriculum; Lecture: Introduction in Psychiatric Genetics
Lecture on genetics of psychiatric diseases 2001; 2004
Psychiatry Resident Neuroscience Week Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto. Lecture on psychiatric epigenetics. 2006- 2010
Molecular Medicine Course (CIHR funded program for graduate students). Directors: Drs. S. Meyn and J. Rommens, Hospital for Sick Children. 2005- 2010
Molecular Psychiatry Course, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Toronto. Director: Dr Barr. 2000-2006
Psychiatric Epigenetics. Summer School on Schizophrenia Research. Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, New York, NY, USA. July 9, 2005.
PhD Tutorial/Laboratory Module Sessions. Department of Pharmacology, University of Toronto. 2005-2010.
Association of Colleges and Universities and Canada (AUCC) program for scientific collaboration with Eastern European countries. Two courses (3 lectures each) on genetics of schizophrenia at the Department of Psychiatry of Vilnius University and Department of Psychiatry of Kaunas Medical University. 1995.

I founded the CAMH Krembil Family Epigenetics Laboratory in 2003 – the world’s first dedicated psychiatric epigenetics laboratory – and led it for more than two decades. I directly supervised 12 PhD students, including three Vanier Scholars (top award for graduate students in Canada), 13 MSc students and 23 postdoctoral fellows, and served on more than three dozen graduate thesis, examination and defence committees. Notable former trainees include Jonathan Mill.

Lithuanian National Science Prize (2026), elected member
European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) (2024), elected member
Academia Europaea (2020)
Tapscott Chair for Schizophrenia Studies, University of Toronto (2010–2020)
Vilnius University Rector’s Prize (2019)
Global Lithuania Leadership Prize (2018)
John Dewan Prize, Ontario Mental Health Foundation (2013)
Senior Fellow, Ontario Mental Health Foundation (2006–2012)
NARSAD (currently Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation, New York, USA) Investigator (2001–2005)
MRC (Canada) Michael Smith fellow (1993-1995).

Most important refereed papers (selected from a list of 100+ articles):

1. Petronis A. Human morbid genetics revisited: relevance of epigenetics. Trends in Genetics, 17 (3): 142-146; 2001.
2. Petronis A, Gottesman II, Kan PX, Kennedy JL, Basile VS, Paterson AD, Popendikyte V. Monozygotic twins exhibit numerous epigenetic differences: clues to twin discordance? Schizophrenia Bulletin, 29(1): 169-178; 2003
3. Wong AH, Gottesman II, Petronis A. Phenotypic differences in genetically identical organisms: the epigenetic perspective. Human Molecular Genetics 14 Suppl 1:R11-8; 2005.
4. Schumacher A, Kapranov P, Kaminsky ZA, Flanagan J, Assadzadeh A, Yau P, Virtanen C, Winegarden N, Cheng J, Gingeras T, Petronis A. Microarray-based DNA methylation profiling: technology and applications. Nucleic Acid Research, 34(2):528-42; 2006.
5. Petronis A. Epigenetics and twins: three variations on the theme. Trends in Genetics, 22(7):347-50; 2006.
6. Flanagan J, Popendikyte V, Pozdniakovaite N, Sobolev M, Assadzadeh A, Schumacher A, Zangeneh M, Lau L, Virtanen C, Wang S-C, and Petronis A. Intra- and Inter- Individual Epigenetic Variation in Human Germ Cells. American Journal of Human Genetics, 79(1): 67-84; 2006.
7. Mill J, Petronis A. Molecular studies of major depressive disorder: the epigenetic perspective. Molecular Psychiatry. 2007; 12(9): 799-814.
8. Ptak C, Petronis A. Epigenetics and complex disease: from etiology to new therapeutics. Annual Review in Pharmacology and Toxicology. 2008; 48: 48:257-76.
9. Mill J, Tang T, Kaminsky ZA, Khare T, Yazdanpanah S, Bouchard L, Assadzadeh A, Flanagan J, Schumacher A, Wang S-C, Petronis A. Epigenomic profiling reveals DNA methylation changes associated with major psychosis. American Journal of Human Genetics, 82(3): 696-711.
10. Kaminsky ZA, Tang T, Wang SC, Ptak C, Oh G, Wong AHC, Feldcamp LA, Virtanen C, Halfvarson J, Tysk C, McRae AF, Visscher PM, Montgomery GW, Gottesman II, Martin NG, Petronis A. DNA methylation profiles in monozygotic and dizygotic Twins. Nature Genetics, 41(2):240-5.
11. Flanagan JM, Munoz-Alegre M, Henderson S, Tang T, Sun P, Johnson N, Fletcher O, Santos Silva I, Peto J, Boshoff C, Narod S, Petronis A. Gene body hypermethylation of ATM in peripheral blood DNA of bilateral breast cancer patients. Human Molecular Genetics, 2009; 18(7):1332-42.
12. Petronis A. Epigenetics as a unifying principle in etiology of complex diseases and traits. Nature, 465(7299):721-7; 2010.
13. Vedadi M, Barsyte-Lovejoy D, Liu F, Rival-Gervier S, Allali-Hassani A, Labrie V, Wigle TJ, Dimaggio PA, Wasney GA, Siarheyeva A, Dong A, Tempel W, Wang SC, Chen X, Chau I, Mangano TJ, Huang XP, Simpson CD, Pattenden SG, Norris JL, Kireev DB, Tripathy A, Edwards A, Roth BL, Janzen WP, Garcia BA, Petronis A, Ellis J, Brown PJ, Frye SV, Arrowsmith CH, Jin J. A chemical probe selectively inhibits G9a and GLP methyltransferase activity in cells. Nat Chem Biol. 2011; 7(8):566-74.
14. Kaminsky Z, Tochigi M, Jia P, Pal M, Mill J, Kwan A, Ioshikhes I, Vincent JB, Kennedy JL, Strauss J, Pai S, Wang SC, Petronis A. A multi-tissue analysis identifies HLA complex group 9 gene methylation differences in bipolar disorder. Mol Psychiatry. 17(7):728-40; 2012
15. Labrie V, Pai S, Petronis A. Epigenetics of major psychosis: progress, problems, and perspectives. Trends in Genetics 28(9): 427-35, 2012.
16. Cortese R, Kwan A, Lalonde E, Bryzgunova O, Bondar A, Wu Y, Gordevicius J, Park M, Oh G, Kaminsky Z, Tverkuviene J, Laurinavicius A, Jankevicius F, Sendorek D, Haider S, Wang SC, Jarmalaite S, Laktionov P, Boutros PC, Petronis A. Epigenetic markers of prostate cancer in plasma circulating DNA. Human Molecular Genetics 21(16): 3619-31; 2012.
17. Khare T, Pai S, Koncevicius K, Pal M, Kriukiene E, Liutkeviciute Z, Irimia M, Jia P, Ptak C, Xia M, Tice R, Moréra S, Nazarians A, Belsham D, Wong AHC, Blencowe BJ, Wang SC, Kapranov P, Kustra R, Labrie V, Klimasauskas S, Petronis A. 5-hmC in the brain: abundance in synaptic genes and differences at the exon-intron boundary. Nature Structural and Molecular Biology 19(10):1037-43, 2012.
18. Kriukienė E, Labrie V, Khare T, Urbanavičiūtė G, Lapinaitė A, Koncevičius K, Li D, Wang T, Pai S, Ptak C, Gordevičius J, Wang SC, Petronis A, Klimašauskas S. DNA unmethylome profiling via covalent capture of CpG sites. Nature Communications, 23; 4:2190, 2013.
19. Oh G, Wang SC, Pal M, Chen ZF, Khare T, Tochigi M, Ng C, Yang YA, Kwan A, Kaminsky ZA, Mill J, Gunasinghe C, Tackett JL, Gottesman II, Willemsen G, de Geus EJ, Vink JM, Slagboom PE, Wray NR, Heath AC, Montgomery GW, Turecki G, Martin NG, Boomsma DI, McGuffin P, Kustra R, Petronis A. DNA modification study of major depressive disorder: beyond locus-by-locus comparisons. Biological Psychiatry. 2015; 77(3):246-55.
20. Pal M, Ebrahimi S, Oh G, Khare T, Zhang A, Kaminsky ZA, Wang SC, Petronis A. High precision DNA modification analysis of HCG9 in major psychosis. Schizophr Bull. 2016 Jan;42(1):170-7.
21. Oh G, Ebrahimi S, Wang SC, Cortese R, Kaminsky ZA, Gottesman II, Burke JR, Plassman BL, Petronis A. Epigenetic assimilation in the aging human brain. Genome Biol. 2016; 17(1):76.
22. Labrie V, Buske OJ, Oh E, Jeremian R, Ptak C, Gasiūnas G, Maleckas A, Petereit R, Žvirbliene A, Adamonis K, Kriukienė E, Koncevičius K, Gordevičius J, Nair A, Zhang A, Ebrahimi S, Oh G, Šikšnys V, Kupčinskas L, Brudno M, Petronis A. Lactase nonpersistence is directed by DNA-variation-dependent epigenetic aging. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2016; 23(6):566-73.
23. Gagliano SA, Ptak C, Mak DY, Shamsi M, Oh G, Knight J, Boutros PC, Petronis A. Allele-Skewed DNA Modification in the Brain: Relevance to a Schizophrenia GWAS. Am J Hum Genet. 2016; 98(5):956-62.
24. Oh E, Jeremian R, Oh G, Groot D, Susic M, Lee K, Foy K, Laird PW, Petronis A, Labrie V. Transcriptional heterogeneity in the lactase gene within cell-type is linked to the epigenome. Scientific Reports 2017; 7:41843.
25. Oh G, Ebrahimi S, Carlucci M, Zhang A, Nair A, Groot DE, Labrie V, Jia P, Oh ES, Jeremian RH, Susic M, Shrestha TC, Ralph MR, Gordevičius J, Koncevičius K, Petronis A. Cytosine modifications exhibit circadian oscillations that are involved in epigenetic diversity and aging. Nature Communications 2018 Feb 13;9(1):644.
26. Gordevičius J, Kriščiūnas A, Groot DE, Yip SM, Susic M, Kwan A, Kustra R, Joshua AM, Chi KN, Petronis A, Oh G. Cell-free DNA modification dynamics in abiraterone acetate- treated prostate cancer patients. Clinical Cancer Research 2018; 24(14):3317-3324.
27. Oh G, Koncevičius K, Ebrahimi S, Carlucci M, Groot DE, Nair A, Zhang A, Kriščiūnas A, Oh SE, Labrie V, Wong AHC, Gordevičius J, Jia P, Susic M, Petronis A. Circadian oscillations of cytosine modification in humans contribute to epigenetic variability, aging, and complex disease. Genome Biology, 20(2): 2457; 2019.
28. Petronis A, Labrie V. The crossroads of psychiatric epigenomics. World Psychiatry. 2019; 18(3):353-354.
29. Carlucci M, Kriščiūnas A, Li H, Gibas P, Koncevičius K, Petronis A, Oh G. DiscoRhythm: an easy-to-use web application and R package for discovering rhythmicity. Bioinformatics. 2019 Nov 8. pii: btz834. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btz834.
30. Oh ES, Petronis A. Origins of human disease: the chrono-epigenetic perspective. Nature Reviews Genetics, 2021; 22(8):533-546.
31. Carlucci M, Lett T, Chavez S, Malinowski A, Lobaugh NJ, Petronis A. Repeated MRI scans of the human brain: diurnal oscillations in healthy adults and bipolar disorder patients. 2023; Nature Communications. 14(1):7044. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-42588-6.
32. Koncevičius K, Nair A, Šveikauskaitė A, Šeštokaitė A, Kazlauskaitė A, Dulskas A, Petronis A. Epigenetic age oscillates during the day. Aging Cell, 23(7):e14170; 2024.
33. Silverthorne T, Carlucci M, Petronis A, Stinchcombe AR. Optimization of experimental designs for biological rhythm discovery. PLoS Computational Biology. 2025; 21(11):e1013662.
34. Matthew Carlucci M, Oh ES, Silverthorne T, Stinchcombe AR, Želnys M, Petronis A. The chronology of developing cells:epigenomic and transcriptomic oscillations are interlinked with linear trajectories. Under final review in PLOS Biology.
35. Koncevičius K, Kazlauskaitė A, Nair A, Vilys L, Reventas R, Šimkūnas M, Žemaitis A, Jurkytė R, Kašėta V, Pivoriūnas A, Germanavičius A, Petronis A. Decoding cell-type-dependent epigenetic aging in epigenome-wide association studies. Under review in Nature Communications.

University of Toronto; Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada; University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada

Projektai, stipendijos:

Unstable genes and schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Society of Ontario (Brampton chapter). May 5, 1997 (Invited speaker).
Learning about Schizophrenia: Rays of Hope. A reference manual for families & caregivers. 2nd edition; Schizophrenia Society of Canada (SSC); 1999 (consultant) www.schizophrenia.ca/szreference.html
Schizophrenia genetics obscured by the realities of complex disease, by Gottesman II and Petronis A. NAMI Advocate. Summer/Fall 2003. p.31-32. Arlington VA, USA.
Epigenetic Forces May Blaze Divergent Heritable Paths From Same DNA. The Schizophrenia Research Forum. http://www.schizophreniaforum.org/ 
The secrets of epigenetics. The Krembil Epigenetics Laboratory and CAMH Foundation, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, July 3, 2009
Epigenetics and psychiatric disease. The Krembil Epigenetics Laboratory and CAMH Foundation, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, July 9, 2009
Beyond genes: unlocking the secrets of epigenetics. The Krembil Epigenetics Laboratory and CAMH Foundation, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, November 23, 2009
The Genetics of Mental Health. CIHR Café Scientifique. Toronto, November 24, 2009
Human disease: genetics, epigenetics, chrono-epigenetics. MO museum, Vilnius. October 5, 2023
Chrono-epigenetics and psychiatry. The Republican Vilnius Psychiatric hospital. Vilnius. May 6, 2024

Kita reikšminga veikla:

Review Activities for Funding agencies

Biological and clinical aspects of aging (BCA) committee. Project grant 2023 fall competition.
Department of Psychiatry’s Miner’s Lamp Innovation Fund in Prevention and Early Detection of Severe Mental Illness. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, 2019.
PsychENCODE: Non-coding Functional Elements in the Human Brain and their Role in the Development of Psychiatric Disorders (U01). NIH/NIMH November 8, 2017
Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Cluster 12 FAS meeting; April 25-26, 2017
Mechanism for Time-Sensitive Drug Abuse Research (R21)
07/14/2016 ZDA1 HXO-H
PsychENCODE: Identification and Characterization of Non-coding Functional Elements in the Brain, and their Role in the Development of Mental Disorders (RFA-MH-14-020)
National Institutes for Health, Genetics of Health and Disease Study Section (GHD) 2012
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Sex, Gender, and Health committee, 2012)
National Institutes for Health ZDA1 SXC-E 12 1, NIDA Cutting-Edge Basic Research Awards (CEBRA) (R21) December 02, 2011
National Institutes for Health (2010/03 ZDA1 GXM-A (13) 1 NIDA CEBRA R21;
2010/10 ZRG1 BDCN-N (04) M)
National Institutes for Health (2010/01 ZDA1 GXM-A)
National Institutes for Health (ZRG1 CB-P; Reference Epigenome Mapping and Data Analysis and Coordination Centers 2008)
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Behavioral Science B committee, 2007- )
Ontario Mental Health Foundation (Fellowships Committee, 2004-2009)
Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation
National Cancer Institute of Canada
United States - Israel Binational Science Foundation
The Hospital for Sick Children Foundation, Toronto, Canada
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (Enabling grant competition)

Journals

Nature Genetics; Archives of General Psychiatry; American Journal of Human Genetics; American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics); Trends in Genetics; Trends in Pharmacological Sciences; Biological Psychiatry; Schizophrenia Research; Molecular Psychiatry; Neuropsychopharmacology; Pediatric Research; Schizophrenia Bulletin; Genome; Psychiatry Research; Journal of Psychiatric Research; Clinical Genetics; Genes, Brain and Behavior; Molecular and Cellular Biology; The Pharmacogenomics Journal; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA; Human Molecular Genetics; The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism; BioEssays; Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience; Genes and Immunity.