Roy H. Perlis - Center for Genomic Medicine

Dr. Perlis is a graduate of Brown University, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard School of Public Health. He serves as co-PI of an NIMH/NHGRI-supported Center of Excellence in Genomic Science. His lab focuses on developing clinical and genomic predictors of treatment response, and on developing novel therapeutics based on cellular models of brain disease.

Questions being addressed in the lab

How do patient-derived cellular models of brain disease differ from those of healthy individuals?
How can patient-derived cellular models of brain disease be applied to identify novel treatments?
How can large-scale electronic health records be used efficiently to identify novel treatments, risk genes, or predictors of treatment response?

Projects underway to answer these questions

We are developing methods for modeling microglia-mediated synaptic pruning in vitro, and are using them to understand pruning abnormalities in schizophrenia and to identify novel treatments.
We are developing new tools for visualizing risk in clinical populations, allowing clinicians to make better use of emerging clinical and genomic predictors.
We are developing ways to make better use of health records and biobanks to drive genetic discovery – for example, understanding the effects of antidepressants on cardiac rhythms.

Answers Found

We helped lead the identification of the first risk genes for major depressive disorder
We developed one of the largest cellular biobanks in the world for the study of brain diseases, a key resource for understanding how disease-associated genes contribute to risk, as well as screening for new treatments.
We developed machine learning approaches that apply electronic health records to predict suicide and other causes of mortality in individuals with psychiatric illness.