OBJECTIVES: Recently, the presence of a complete five subunit Kinase, Endopeptidase and Other Proteins of small Size (KEOPS) complex was confirmed in humans. The highly conserved KEOPS protein complex has established roles in tRNA modification, protein translation and telomere homeostasis in yeast, but little is known about KEOPS mRNA expression and function in human brain and disease. Here, we characterise KEOPS expression in post-mortem tissue from subjects diagnosed with major depression (MDD) and schizophrenia and assess whether KEOPS is associated with telomere length dysregulation in neuropsychiatric disorders. METHODS: We assessed mRNA expression of KEOPS complex subunits TP53RK, TPRKB, GON7, LAGE3, OSGEP, and OSGEP mitochondrial ortholog OSGEPL1 in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of subjects with MDD, schizophrenia and matched non-psychiatrically ill controls (n = 20 per group) using qPCR. We conducted bioinformatic analysis using Kaleidoscope, data mining post-mortem transcriptomic datasets to characterise KEOPS expression in human brain. Finally, we assayed relative telomere length in the DLPFC using a qPCR-based assay and carried out correlation analysis with KEOPS subunit mRNA expression to determine if the KEOPS complex is associated with telomere length dysregulation in neuropsychiatric disorders. RESULTS: There were no significant changes in KEOPS mRNA expression in the DLPFC in MDD or schizophrenia compared to non-psychiatrically ill controls. Relative telomere length was not significantly altered in MDD or schizophrenia, nor was there an association between relative telomere length and KEOPS subunit gene expression in these subjects. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to describe KEOPS complex expression in post-mortem brain and neuropsychiatric disorders. KEOPS subunit mRNA expression is not significantly altered in the DLPFC in MDD or schizophrenia. Unlike in yeast, the KEOPS complex does not appear to play a role in telomere length regulation in humans or in neuropsychiatric disorders.