Leanna M. Hernandez, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. She received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Southern California (USC) and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Hernandez completed her postdoctoral training in psychiatric genetics at UCLA’s Semel Institute. She directs a research laboratory examining the genetic and neurobiological etiology of autism, schizophrenia, and related psychiatric disorders. She is a member of UCLA’s Center for Autism Research and Treatment, Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics, and the Brain Research Institute, and serves as Co-Director of the Genetics, Genomics, and Informatics Core for UCLA’s Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center.

Lauren is a postdoctoral fellow in the Hernandez Lab at UCLA. She earned bachelor's degrees in Neuroscience and Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin, where she conducted research in psycholinguistics and natural language processing using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). While completing her PhD at UCLA she developed expertise in infant fMRI, applying these techniques to the study of early language development and the emergence of autism-related symptoms in early life. In the Hernandez lab, Lauren combines neuroimaging and genomics methods to investigate the early underpinnings of excitation-inhibition balance and neurodevelopmental conditions like autism. In her free time, she enjoys acrobatic training, cooking, and gardening.

Emily earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UCLA, where she utilized EEG to study sleep regulatory mechanisms in mouse models. Currently, as a 3rd year doctoral student in the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology program at UCLA, she is interested in leveraging neuroimaging (e.g. fMRI) and genetic approaches to examine how early sleep disruption in infancy may impact brain and behavioral development.

Hoki is a Ph.D. student in the Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program (NSIDP) at UCLA. Her research combines behavioral experiments, neuroimaging, and computational modeling to study the neural mechanisms underlying higher-order cognitive processes in healthy and clinical populations. She received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, M.Res. in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University College London, and M.Comp. in Artificial Intelligence from the National University of Singapore. When she is not busy doing research, she enjoys cafe hopping, playing basketball, and hanging out with friends.

Sruthi is a Programmer Analyst at the lab. She earned her Master of Science in Bioinformatics degree from Pennsylvania State University and has since worked as part of research teams investigating neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Autism. Prior to pursuing her postgraduate education, she held a Post-Baccalaureate fellowship at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, focusing on multi-omics research as part of a Computational Systems Biology Lab. In the Hernandez Lab, Sruthi is interested in understanding the biology at the intersection of transcriptomics, brain imaging, and association studies in subjects with neuropsychiatric conditions

Jack Dodson is a Programmer Analyst in the Hernandez lab at the Semel Institute at UCLA. He earned his Bachelors in genetics at Michigan State University before completing a Masters in bioinformatics at UCLA in 2023. His research projects currently focus on GWAS of autism, schizophrenia, ADHD, and intellectual disability.

Morgan is an undergraduate Neuroscience major from the Bay Area with an interest in epilepsy, psychiatric genetics, and functional neuroimaging. Her research investigates how polygenic risk scores for epilepsy relate to resting-state functional connectivity in the adolescent brain. She is particularly interested in the intersection of neurodevelopment, genetic risk, and brain network organization. Outside of the lab, Morgan enjoys skiing and discovering new music. goes here

Kimiya Natan is a third-year undergraduate at UCLA majoring in PsychoBiology and minoring in Iranian Studies. She is particularly interested in the genetic and neurodevelopmental mechanisms underlying autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with a focus on investigating genetic variants linked to sleep in pediatric populations and their associations with autism-related traits. After graduation, she intends to pursue a graduate degree. Beyond the lab, Kimiya loves to draw and is a black belt and Sensei of Yoshukai Karate!