Director, Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute
I direct the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, which focuses on schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorders. The Center has 30 principal investigators including faculty with primary affiliations at Harvard, the Harvard-affiliated hospitals, and MIT as well as Broad appointed staff scientists. Center scientists are engaged in collaborative, interdisciplinary research that extends from large-scale human genetics that is conducted globally, to diverse areas of neurobiology, and to biomarker discovery and therapeutics. The Center also has a significant focus on building computational and experimental tools and developing experimental model systems to interrogate the findings now emerging rapidly from genetics. These include neural models based on stem cells and brain organoids both in vitro and transplanted into animal brains, and genome-engineered mice and nonhuman primates. Beyond my role as Center director, my current personal focus is the discovery and validation of fluid (CSF and blood-based) biomarkers for schizophrenia spectrum disorders grounded in hypotheses derive from genetic discoveries.