A team of scientists led by Dr. Anil Malhotra has identified two genes that contribute to schizophrenia, a condition that has affected about two million people in the U.S., the Newsday reported.

For the past five years Dr. Malhotra and his colleagues have been collecting blood samples from patients with a confirmed diagnosis of schizophrenia. The research team at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, part of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Medical Center, analyzed the genetic blueprint from more than 1,300 patients. Their finding was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics confirming family studies conducted outside the U.S. The newspaper said it was for the first time that scientists have linked these genes to schizophrenia in a random sample.

Although scientists have known for 100 years that schizophrenia runs in families, determining actual genes responsible for the condition has been difficult.

The Malhotra team identified two risk genes — DISCI or disrupted in schizophrenia and DTNBPI or dysbindin. The study conducted by them is the first to find risk genes among unrelated patients.

(Compiled from news dispatches by M. Chooki)