This federal Project Grant award of $859,577 was made by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The project aims to systematically investigate the phenotypes of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in African American populations and use high-throughput sequencing to identify rare genetic variations contributing to OCD susceptibility in this underrepresented group. The research will recruit at least 1,250 African American OCD participants and conduct genetic association studies to compare findings across ancestries. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Baylor College of Medicine are sub-awardees, responsible for recruiting and assessing OCD participants of African ancestry, as well as providing expertise in assessment, phenotyping, and regulatory oversight. This research is expected to increase the number of known OCD genes, expand knowledge of disrupted pathways, and determine whether recent deleterious variation differs across ancestry, ultimately advancing a molecular understanding of OCD and identifying targets for novel therapeutics.