Focus Areas in the Genomic Medicine Cycle
Major leadership positions
Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
MGH Dept/Division/Unit(s)
Affiliated faculty member with the Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital
Overview
Our lab’s research focuses on the genetic epidemiology of behavior and cognition.
We are interested in using genetic data to understand the biology of neurodevelopmental variation, and to study differences within and between neuropsychiatric disorders. The Robinson lab uses techniques from statistical genetics and epidemiology to study how common and rare genetic risk factors for severe neuropsychiatric disorders may differ and develops approaches for examining these questions in large samples.
We study genetic influences on human behavioral and cognitive variation, and use genetic data to understand the biological basis of neuropsychiatric disorders.
Priority Projects
- Autism Spectrum Disorder: Dr. Robinson co-chairs the Autism Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, as well as the Program in Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the Broad Institute. Lab projects related to ASD include: genetic association, integration of findings from GWAS and exome data, and use of genotype and phenotype data to untangle ASD heterogeneity.
- The NeuroDev Project: NeuroDev is a study of developmental disorders that, by 2022, will collect health and genetic information from over 5,000 people in Kenya and South Africa.The project will improve the medical community’s understanding of intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorders, and other developmental differences in Africa, as well as all over the world.
- Patient Stratification Initiative: Schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), and other behaviorally-defined disorders are highly heterogeneous. The patient stratification initiative is a concentrated effort in the Stanley Center to use genetic and phenotypic data to characterize this heterogeneity.
- Genetic Epidemiology of Behavior and Cognition: Examining the general population associations to the genetic risk of neuropsychiatric disorders can help us broadly understand health and disease.
Lab Members
| Name: | Email: | Role: |
|---|---|---|
| Celia van der Merwe | cvanderm [@] broadinstitute.org | Research Scientist |
| Alice Galvin | agalvin [@] broadinstitute.org | Project Manager |
| Rene Lepore | rlepore [@] broadinstitute.org | Program Coordinator |
| Ajay Nadig | andaig [@] broadinstitute.org | Graduate Student |
| Caitlin Carey | ccarey [@] broadinstitute.org | Postdoc |
| Susan Kuo | susankuo [@] broadinstitute.org | Postdoc |
The Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM) comprises one of the largest and most vibrant hubs of genomic medicine research in the world. The CGM includes 46 faculty collaborating to define the ‘genomic medicine cycle’ – which envisages a genomics community seeking to advance research from basic genomics research to ultimately using genome information for diagnostics and targeted therapeutics. All of our investigators are faculty at Harvard Medical School, and many members of our community are also investigators at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.
