Name: Dr. Helen Rankin Willsey

Position: Assistant Professor

Research Description:

The Willsey Lab uses the powerful Xenopus tropicalis (diploid frog) model to translate success in psychiatric disorder genetics into actionable mechanisms of risk and resilience. Our work to date has focused on high-confidence, large-effect risk genes for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), where we have identified a convergent phenotype during forebrain neurogenesis. Specifically, we created half-mutant animals (divided by the midline) by CRISPR/Cas9 targeted injections and observed defects in neural progenitor maturation for the top 10 ASD risk genes. By drug screening, we identified estrogen signaling as a potential resilience factor for multiple different genes. Going forward, we are focusing on how these risk genes affect neurogenesis, how estrogen signaling interacts, and expanding this experimental platform to begin work on other disorders with large-effect risk genes, including Schizophrenia, Tourette Disorder, ADHD, and OCD.

Disease Research Areas/Interest:

autosomal recessive intellectual developmental disorder, intellectual disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, heart disease, autistic disorder, schizophrenia, osteochondritis dissecans, dyskinesia of esophagus

Lab Memberships

Harland Lab (Post-doc, Alumni)
Willsey Lab (Principal Investigator/Director)

Contact Information

Address:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Weill Institute for Neurosciences
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
USA

Email: Helen.Willsey@ucsf.edu
Web Page: http://willseylab.com
ORCID: 0000-0001-8404-3291