Research
The genetic basis of neurobehavioral traits, development of research tools to facilitate the genetic investigation of complex traits
Appointments
- Director, Biological Samples Processing Core (BSPC)
- Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics
- Informatics Center for Neurogenetics and Neurogenomics (ICNN)
- UCLA Neuroscience Genomics Core
- Professor, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
- Member, Neuroscience IDP
- Adult Psychiatry
- Brain Research Institute
- CTSI
Biography
The research in Dr. Freimer’s laboratory aims to identify the genetic basis of complex traits, particularly neurobehavioral phenotypes such as bipolar disorder, Tourette Syndrome, and temperament. Together with numerous collaborators the lab has centered its studies around three foci:
1) using genomewide genetic approaches to map neurobehavioral traits
2) developing innovative approaches to phenotype neurobehavioral traits
3) emphasizing the importance of population genetics for gene mapping, particularly the use of population isolates.
Publications
- Trastulla, L, Dolgalev, G, Moser, S, Jiménez-Barrón, LT, Andlauer, TFM, von Scheidt, M et al.. Distinct genetic liability profiles define clinically relevant patient strata across common diseases. Nat Commun. 2024;15 (1):5534. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49338-2. PubMed PMID:38951512 PubMed Central PMC11217418.
- Song, J, Ramírez, MC, Okano, JT, Service, SK, de la Hoz, J, Díaz-Zuluaga, AM et al.. Geospatial investigations in Colombia reveal variations in the distribution of mood and psychotic disorders. Commun Med (Lond). 2024;4 (1):26. doi: 10.1038/s43856-024-00441-x. PubMed PMID:38383761 PubMed Central PMC10881503.
- Service, SK, De La Hoz, J, Diaz-Zuluaga, AM, Arias, A, Pimplaskar, A, Luu, C et al.. Predicting diagnostic conversion from major depressive disorder to bipolar disorder: an EHR based study from Colombia. medRxiv. 2023; :. doi: 10.1101/2023.09.28.23296092. PubMed PMID:37873340 PubMed Central PMC10593019.
- Maury, EA, Sherman, MA, Genovese, G, Gilgenast, TG, Kamath, T, Burris, SJ et al.. Schizophrenia-associated somatic copy-number variants from 12,834 cases reveal recurrent NRXN1 and ABCB11 disruptions. Cell Genom. 2023;3 (8):100356. doi: 10.1016/j.xgen.2023.100356. PubMed PMID:37601975 PubMed Central PMC10435376.
- Hsu, YH, Pintacuda, G, Liu, R, Nacu, E, Kim, A, Tsafou, K et al.. Using brain cell-type-specific protein interactomes to interpret neurodevelopmental genetic signals in schizophrenia. iScience. 2023;26 (5):106701. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106701. PubMed PMID:37207277 PubMed Central PMC10189495.