Neuronal circuits underlie all human behaviors, thoughts, emotions and memories. Defective communication within these neural circuits lead to neurodevelopmental, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative disorders. Our laboratory studies how brain circuit function, and ultimately behavior, is governed by molecular networks of proteins that are perturbed by genetic mutations that drive these disorders.  

Our areas of interest involve the utilization of cutting-edge proteomic and CRISPR approaches we have developed, protein design using continuous evolution and generative AI, and new computational and deep learning/AI models to unravel disease etiology. Current projects include AI models of protein kinases implicated in brain disorders, proteomics to unravel mysteries of Parkinson’s Disease and Autism, synapse wiring by adhesion molecules, and generative AI to create synthetic biology tools to tease out mechanisms of each of these.

Video abstracts of our recent publications in Nature and Neuron.