Although this regulation is opposite to the down-regulation observed in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of schizophrenia patients (Kimoto et al., 2014), the up-regulation of EGR1 in blood cells was specific for schizophrenia when compared to major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder (Cattane et al., 2015), which confers EGR1 a particularly promising biomarker potential in a clinical environment. The gene discussed is EGR1; the disease is major depressive disorder.