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.

Originally from Japan, Emma received a B.S. and M.S. in Health Sciences from University of Tsukuba. Emma joined the team as a Lab Assistant in 2022 and has been working on a large-scale genome wide association study (GWAS) of autism spectrum disorder. She is particularly interested in understanding the genetic architecture of genetically correlated childhood behaviors, including internalizing and externalizing traits, using genomic structural equation modeling. She plans to pursue graduate studies in genetics and genomics.

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 multi-ancestry GWAS of autism, schizophrenia, ADHD, and intellectual disability.

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.

Priyanka earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Mumbai, India, specializing in the study of effect of Lithium on glioblastoma metastasis utilizing microinjection-based xenotransplantation in zebrafish models. Her expertise also spans to clinical practice, where she served as an ABA therapist for children with autism and ADHD. She further honed her research skills as a project associate at the National Brain Research Centre, India, focusing on brain network theory in autism utilizing neuroimaging data. Currently, as a 3rd year doctoral student in the NSIDP program at UCLA, Priyanka is exploring the intersections of neuroimaging (e.g., fMRI) and genetics to uncover early neurobiological markers for anxiety disorders and their influence on brain and behavioral development.

Jeffrey Yang (he/him/his) is a fourth-year Computational and Systems Biology major from the bay area. His interests include Neuroscience, Psychology, and Computational Sciences. He conducts research in the Hernandez Lab about genetic risk factors for ASD and how gene x environment interactions impact adolescent brain development. In his free time, he enjoys running and playing basketball, and after graduation, his plans include graduate school. Fun fact is he really enjoys cooking and wants to design a cookbook one day!