Cynthia Bulik

About

Cynthia Bulik, PhD, FAED, is a Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders in the Department of Psychiatry and a professor of nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is the founding director of the UNC Center of Excellence for Eating Disorders and co-director of the UNC Center for Psychiatric Genomics. Dr. Bulik is also a professor of medical epidemiology and biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, where she established the Centre for Eating Disorders Innovation. Her research encompasses treatment, laboratory, epidemiological, twin, and molecular genetic studies of eating disorders and weight regulation. She has held leadership roles in major consortia studying the genetics of eating disorders and is the Founder and Co-Chair of the Eating Disorders Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. She has authored over 800 scientific papers and 60 chapters on eating disorders, and has written several books including 'Crave: Why You Binge Eat and How to Stop' and 'Binge Control: A Compact Recovery Guide.' Dr. Bulik has received numerous awards for her lifetime achievements, including honors from the National Eating Disorders Association, the Academy for Eating Disorders, and the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics. Her academic career is complemented by her personal life, being happily married with three adult children and an accomplished ice dancer.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Biology
• Psychiatry
• Medicine
• Genetics
• Clinical psychology
• Bioinformatics
• Neuroscience
• Virology
• Medical emergency

Selected publications

• Mapping the human genetic architecture of COVID-19

  Nature · 2021 · 1108 citations

  . They also represent potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection. Mendelian randomization analyses support a causal role for smoking and body-mass index for severe COVID-19 although not for type II diabetes. The identification of novel host genetic factors associated with COVID-19 was made possible by the community of human genetics researchers coming together to prioritize the sharing of data, results, resources and analytical frameworks. This working model of international coll…

  DOI

• Genetic identification of cell types underlying brain complex traits yields insights into the etiology of Parkinson’s disease

  Nature Genetics · 2020 · 376 citations

  Genome-wide association studies have discovered hundreds of loci associated with complex brain disorders, but it remains unclear in which cell types these loci are active. Here we integrate genome-wide association study results with single-cell transcriptomic data from the entire mouse nervous system to systematically identify cell types underlying brain complex traits. We show that psychiatric disorders are predominantly associated with projecting excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Neurological…

  DOI

• Dissecting the Shared Genetic Architecture of Suicide Attempt, Psychiatric Disorders, and Known Risk Factors

  Biological Psychiatry · 2021 · 240 citations

  DOI

• Genetics and neurobiology of eating disorders

  Nature Neuroscience · 2022 · 138 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Sex-Dependent Shared and Nonshared Genetic Architecture Across Mood and Psychotic Disorders

  Biological Psychiatry · 2021 · 135 citations

  BACKGROUND: Sex differences in incidence and/or presentation of schizophrenia (SCZ), major depressive disorder (MDD), and bipolar disorder (BIP) are pervasive. Previous evidence for shared genetic risk and sex differences in brain abnormalities across disorders suggest possible shared sex-dependent genetic risk. METHODS: We conducted the largest to date genome-wide genotype-by-sex (G×S) interaction of risk for these disorders using 85,735 cases (33,403 SCZ, 19,924 BIP, and 32,408 MDD) and 109,94…

  DOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01MH080065

  NIH · $3.2M · 2014

• NIH Grant R01HD047186

  NIH · $1.4M · 2008

• NIH Grant R01MH082732

  NIH · $919k · 2011

Frequent coauthors

• Hunna J. Watson

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  378 shared

• Gerome Breen

  NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at The Royal Marsden and the ICR

  326 shared

• Christopher Hübel

  King's College London

  316 shared

• Nadia Micali

  University College London

  246 shared

• Laura M. Thornton

  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  239 shared

• Walter H. Kaye

  University of California, San Diego

  235 shared

• Katherine A. Halmi

  225 shared

• Zeynep Yılmaz

  206 shared

Awards & honors

• Most Valued Colleague Award 2025, Psychiatric Genomics Conso…
• Ming Tsuang Lifetime Achievement Award 2023, International S…
• Lifetime Achievement Award 2022, Academy for Eating Disorder…
• Honorary Professor 2020, Department of Psychological Medicin…
• Erskine Fellowship 2016, University of Canterbury, Christchu…

Similar researchers at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Barry M. Popkinh-170
• Linda Adairh-106
• Nobuyo Maedah-97