The biological basis for most brain disorders is unknown today: most are conceptualized mainly in terms of collections of symptoms, neuropathological observations, and human-genetic associations. We need to deeply understand these disorders as biological entities so that we can develop new and innovative ways to monitor and treat them.
Our lab is focused on (i) DNA-repeat disorders and (ii) the disruptions of mental health commonly known as “psychiatric disorders,” especially schizophrenia.
Our research team brings together people with experiences, approaches and insights from biology, human genetics, statistics, and computer science.
Our Arpiar Saunders has published his atlas of the mouse brain. Using single-cell sequencing, our lab unmasked the unique genetic signatures of more than 560 cell populations across nine brain regions. Here’s an article about the trials and tribulations of creating the study, as well as its implications for scientific research.
Evan Macosko has received the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, a grant that funds high-risk, high-reward projects from early-career investigators. The proposed project must be deemed creative and high-impact, and since the investigator cannot have received a previous R01, preliminary data is optional. The New Innovators are considered to be […]
Giulio Genovese has published a follow-up article to his initial discovery of a common precancerous condition. In 2014, we described a common pre-cancerous state, involving the clonal amplification of blood cells with somatic mutations, that is readily detected by DNA sequencing, is increasingly common as people age, and is associated with increased risk of blood cancer later in life. Now, we describe the inherited and acquired mutations that drive this precancerous condition. For more information, please check out: An HMS News article; A New York Times article on heart disease; A feature in Science; A Boston Globe article
Christina Usher was interviewed by the BBC for an upcoming special, “The Truth About Carbs”. The interview covered what we currently know about the amylase gene and its impact on metabolism. See Christina’s paper in Nature Genetics on amylase, from her Ph.D. work in the lab.
An article on the Science website describes Fenna’s research to map the brain – first cataloging long-range synaptic connections in the human brain (in Randy Buckner’s lab) and now analyzing the conservation of neuronal types and subtypes across species (in our lab).