Research
Neurogenetic disorders; neurobehavioral biomarkers of serious mental illness
Appointments
- Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Psychology, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior Brain Research Institute
- Integrative Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics
- Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART)
- Director, Center for the Assessment and Prevention of Prodromal States (CAPPS)
Biography
Her research aims to understand genetic and neurobiological risk factors for the development of early-onset neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr. Bearden’s work examines these questions through two complementary lines of research:
1) The investigation of early biomarkers that predict disease risk and trajectory in at-risk populations; and
2) Translational approaches to understanding disrupted brain circuitry in highly penetrant genetic subtypes (e.g, 22q11.2 microdeletions)
Publications
- Bilgrami, ZR, Castro, E, Agurto, C, Liebenthal, E, Ennis, M, Baker, JT et al.. Collecting language, speech acoustics, and facial expression to predict psychosis and other clinical outcomes: strategies from the AMP® SCZ initiative. Schizophrenia (Heidelb). 2025;11 (1):125. doi: 10.1038/s41537-025-00669-z. PubMed PMID:41093845 PubMed Central PMC12528486.
- Farina, EA, Mourgues-Codern, C, Stimler, K, Kenney, J, Saxena, A, Mukhtar, H et al.. Shift in sex and age of individuals at a clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis: relation to differences in recruitment methods and effect on sample characteristics. Schizophrenia (Heidelb). 2025;11 (1):123. doi: 10.1038/s41537-025-00663-5. PubMed PMID:41053030 PubMed Central PMC12501016.
- Rodriguez-Sanchez, J, Hauke, DJ, Pinotsis, D, Berndt, LCS, Oloye, H, Nicholas, SC et al.. Excitation/inhibition imbalance and conversion to psychosis in the clinical high risk syndrome: Biophysical modeling finds reduced pyramidal cell excitability across EEG paradigms. medRxiv. 2025; :. doi: 10.1101/2025.09.16.25335778. PubMed PMID:41001490 PubMed Central PMC12458603.
- Bello, D, Blyth, SH, Rabin, RA, Addington, J, Bearden, CE, Cadenhead, K et al.. Cannabis and Tobacco Co-Use Predicts Psychosis in Clinical High Risk Cohorts. medRxiv. 2025; :. doi: 10.1101/2025.09.19.25336202. PubMed PMID:41001470 PubMed Central PMC12458528.
- Addington, J, Liu, L, Chu, M, Jungert, K, Penzel, N, Pasternak, O et al.. Baseline Clinical Characterization of Participants in the Accelerating Medicines Partnership Schizophrenia Program. Schizophr Bull Open. 2025;6 (1):sgaf012. doi: 10.1093/schizbullopen/sgaf012. PubMed PMID:40861307 PubMed Central PMC12377803.