My current area of Investigation is understanding the genetic and hormonal effectors of sex differences in development and pathology of neuronal tissues. For this analysis I am using a complement of genetic, molecular biological, and bioinformatics analyses. A well-controlled, cellular model of sex differences would be highly valuable to the field. The Young-Pearse lab has expertise in generating human stem cells from adult subjects, and transforming these into brain cells to study the mechanisms of neurological and psychiatric disease. I am currently developing a cellular model of sex differences in the human brain. This model system will be used as a corner stone in an experimental program analyzing genome-wide effects of sex-biased gene expression resulting from both intrinsic genetic differences and extracellular hormonal response. This will allow our lab and others to test specific cellular and molecular questions about how male and female brain cells are differentially vulnerable to many diseases of the brain including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer?s disease, Parkinson?s disease, autism, schizophrenia, major depression, and bipolar disorder (to name a few). Understanding these differences at a cellular and molecular level is important for personalizing clinical approaches to individual patient needs.
I performed my PhD work under the mentorship of Michael G. Rosenfeld at UCSC studying the transcriptional regulation in male germ-cell development. I then went on to my postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Clifford J. Tabin at Harvard Medical School, where I studied the function and regulation of Shh signaling in limb development. After spending 10 years as a biomedical science consultant on a variety of open science projects I've returned to the lab where I am now integrating my diverse background in molecular, biochemical and the genetic analyses of tissue development as well as a repertoire of molecular biology and informatics techniques to study the molecular basis of sex-differences in Alzheimer?s disease and neural development.