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 ↗
Trait-level genetics
Each phenotype is one summary measurement per subject — a regional volume, a tract-averaged FA, a functional connectivity edge. One trait, one GWAS, one Manhattan plot.
An interactive GWAS browser built on PheWeb2, covering 2,104 neuroimaging traits from the UK Biobank British cohort (~50,000 subjects). Search any trait for Manhattan plots, top variants, and gene-level results.
Open the browser
Spatial-level genetics
Here the phenotype is not a number but a field over anatomy. The HEIG pipeline compresses tens of thousands of voxels or vertices into low-dimensional representations, so a variant’s effect can be mapped across a structure instead of collapsed into a single value.
Vertex-level GWAS across 8 subcortical regions, summarized into low-dimensional representations.
Open shape maps
Voxel-level GWAS across 21 diffusion tracts, summarized into low-dimensional representations.
Open TBSS maps
Voxel-level GWAS across 66 diffusion network pathways, summarized into low-dimensional representations.
Open CBSS maps
Full GWAS summary statistics, freely available across all trait categories.
Questions or comments? Contact Bingxin Zhao or Hongtu Zhu.
Recent highlights
A spatially resolved genomic molecular atlas of human white-matter microstructure
Read paperMulti-organ imaging and genetics show the impact of sleep patterns on the human brain and body
Read paperInferring multi-organ genetic connections using imaging and clinical data through Mendelian randomization
Read paperComputation and resource efficient genome-wide association analysis for large-scale imaging studies
Read paperMapping rare protein-coding variants on multi-organ imaging traits
Read paperEye-brain connections revealed by multimodal retinal and brain imaging genetics
Read paperHeart-brain connections: phenotypic and genetic insights from magnetic resonance images
Read paper
Data Sources
We have consistently analyzed genetics and neuroimaging data of more than 50,000 subjects from
News: we have a newly-built twin website that covers imaging traits for the heart
http://Heartkp.org.
Publications (2018+)
A spatially resolved genomic molecular atlas of human white‑matter microstructure
MedRxiv, 2026
Read PaperMulti-organ imaging and genetics show the impact of sleep patterns on the human brain and body
Communications Medicine, 2026
Read PaperMapping 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