About BIG-KP
This knowledge portal provides a platform for accelerating genetic discoveries in the human brain.
News: 📄 View BIG-S2 Lab 2025 Annual Report ↗
News: we have a newly-built twin website that covers imaging traits for the heart http://Heartkp.org.
We make our research results publicly available by building the following resources.
1. Imaging Genetics Online Server
We build a GWAS browser using the PheWeb tool to explore GWAS results for massive functional, structural, and diffusion neuroimaging traits. Currently, we support GWAS results of 2104 traits trained in the UKB British cohort (n~34,000), including
- 635 ENIGMA-DTI parameters of brain white matter (diffusion MRI)
- 376 ANTS regional brain volumes (structural MRI)
- 191 ICA-based functional MRI traits (rs-fMRI(ICA))
- 309 parcellation-based functional MRI (task/rs-fMRI(Glasser360))
- 82 Heart imaging traits (CMR) (More info visit our Heartkp.org LINK )
- 294 Shape traits
- 217 Eye imaging traits
2. GWAS Summary Statistics Data Download
The GWAS summary statistics for 101 ANTS regional brain volumes, 635 ENIGMA-DTI parameters, 191 ICA-based amplitude (75) and functional connectivity traits (116), 309 parcellation-based functional MRI traits, 82 Heart imaging traits, and 382 shape imaging traits have been made available for download. Download the data HERE.
If you are interested in other summary-level data from our analyses or have any questions or comments, feel free to contact Bingxin Zhao (bxzhao@upenn.edu) or Hongtu Zhu (htzhu@email.unc.edu).
New Publications
Data sources
We have consistently analyzed genetics and neuroimaging data of more than 50,000 subjects from
Publications (2018+)
Mapping rare protein-coding variants on multi-organ imaging traits
Nature Communications, 2025
Read PaperInferring multi-organ genetic connections using imaging and clinical data through Mendelian randomization
Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2025
Read PaperComputation and resource efficient genome-wide association analysis for large-scale imaging studies
Nature Communications, 2025
Read PaperEye-brain connections revealed by multimodal retinal and brain imaging genetics
Nature Communications, 15, 6064, 2024,
Read PaperThe pivotal role of the X-chromosome in the genetic architecture of the human brain
Science Advances, 2024
Read PaperHeart-brain connections: Phenotypic and genetic insights from magnetic resonance images
Science, 380, abn6598, 2023
Read PaperGenetic influences on the shape of brain ventricular and subcortical structures
medRxiv, 22279691, 2022
Read PaperCommon variants contribute to intrinsic human brain function networks
Nature Genetics, 2022
Read PaperGenetic influences on the intrinsic and extrinsic functional organizations of the cerebral cortex
medRxiv, 21261187, 2021
Read PaperCommon genetic variation influencing human white matter microstructure
Science, 372-6548, 2021
Read PaperTranscriptome-wide association analysis of brain structures yields insights into pleiotropy with complex neuropsychiatric traits
Nature Communications, 842872, 2021
Read PaperGenome-wide association analysis of 19,629 individuals identifies variants influencing regional brain volumes and refines their genetic co-architecture with cognitive and mental health traits
Nature Genetics, 51(11), 1637-1644, 2019
Read PaperLarge-scale GWAS reveals genetic architecture of brain white matter microstructure and genetic overlap with cognitive and mental health traits (n=17,706)
Molecular Psychiatry, 2019
Read PaperHeritability of regional brain volumes in large-scale neuroimaging and genetic studies
Cerebral Cortex, 29(7), 2904-2914, 2018
Read Paper