Our research.
Dissecting neural-immune mechanisms of autism and psychosis.
Growing evidence implicates altered neural-immune signaling in the pathophysiology of several heritable neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. By systematically integrating genetic, transcriptomic, and neuroimaging data, we are working to elucidate how individual differences in neural-immune gene expression affect structural brain development during childhood and adolescence.
Understanding how genetic and environmental factors impact heterogeneity in brain development.
Previous genome wide association (GWAS) studies have shown that there are hundreds of genes associated with common psychiatric disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia. We are interested in understanding how these genetic variants impact longitudinal trajectories of brain develop to result in a spectrum of symptoms and co-occurring conditions that emerge over the course of development.
Large-scale GWAS to identify genetic variants associated with psychiatric disorders.
Over the past two decades, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have transformed our understanding of the genetic basis of brain and psychiatric disorders. However, for conditions like autism, progress has been limited by relatively small sample sizes. To overcome this challenge, our research leverages large-scale population biobanks and electronic health record data to conduct GWAS on autism and other common neurodevelopmental disorders. This approach not only enables the identification of novel genetic insights but also opens the door to more personalized approaches to diagnosis and treatment.