| Dr. Sklar is a neuroscientist,
human geneticist and psychiatrist. She completed
clinical training in Psychiatry at Columbia
Presbyterian Hospital and the New York State
Psychiatric Institute in Manhattan and research
training in the laboratories of Solomon
Snyder (Johns Hopkins Medical School) and
Richard Axel (Columbia University). Her
primary laboratory is located in the Psychiatric
and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit (PNGU)
in the Center for Human Genetic Research
at Massachusetts General Hospital, where
she is an associate professor of psychiatry
and the associate director of the PNGU.
Dr. Sklar is also a senior associate member
of the Broad Institute, as well as a founding
member of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric
Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and
Harvard where she serves as director of
genetics.
The Sklar laboratory focuses on identification
of susceptibility genes for psychiatric
diseases and has played a leading role in
identification rare structural variants
in schizophrenia, common variants associated
with bipolar disorder, and the highly polygenic
nature of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Working closely with PNGU statistical geneticist
Shaun Purcell, there is a strong focus on
the development of novel methods for genetic
analyses including gene-based and pathway
based tests, imputation, segmental sharing
(rare variants), epistasis, predictive modeling,
and exploration of the genetic factors contributing
to treatment response in particular as applied
to bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. New
avenues of research in the lab include exploration
of the role of rare variation in psychiatric
disease using next-generation whole genome
sequencing in schizophrenia and bipolar
disorder, pioneering the use of iPS technology
as cellular models of schizophrenia and
bipolar disorder with defined human genetic
liability, detecting epigenetic changes
in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, exploratory
work investigating environmental contribution
and follow-up biological investigations
of novel genetic associations.
Reference links:
International Schizophrenia Consortium
(http://pngu.mgh.harvard.edu/isc/)
Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research
(http://www.broad.mit.edu/psych/stanley)
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