Systems biology dissection of trauma-related disorders across brain regions, cell-types and blood
Speaker
Nikolaos P. Daskalakis, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Director, Neurogenomics and Translational Bioinformatics Laboratory, McLean Hospital
Title
Systems biology dissection of trauma-related disorders across brain regions, cell-types and blood
Speaker Biography
Dr. Daskalakis is the Director of the Neurogenomics and Translational Bioinformatics Laboratory (NG-TBL) at McLean Hospital and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is an associate member of the Broad Institute and an affiliate member of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the National Center for PTSD.
Dr. Daskalakis received his MD with honors from the University of Athens, his Ph.D. in neuropsychopharmacology from Leiden University, and completed post-doctoral research fellowships in clinical neuroendocrinology at Leiden University and in systems biology at the Icahn School of Medicine.
Dr. Daskalakis leads the Systems Biology working group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium for PTSD. He is an editor for Brain Sciences, Frontiers (in Behavioral Neuroscience, Endocrinology, Neuroscience, and Psychiatry), and Neurobiology of Stress.
NG-TBL conducts research focused on the connection between stress and brain functions. NG-TBL employs functional genomics to dissect functional epigenetic and cell-type-specific regulatory elements and risk loci underlying the genetics of stress-related mental disorders, such as PTSD, and then engages in translational research using cell culture and animal models to validate causal genes and variants. In addition, NG-TBL employs “big data” and machine learning to investigate genotype-to-phenotype relationships related to complex neuropsychiatric traits to gain a deeper understanding of the individual differences in the expression of symptoms. NG-TBL pursues research on these fronts and, ultimately, seeks to identify novel mechanisms and treatments for these devastating mental disorders.