About
Titles
Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry
Co-director, Science Fellows ProgramBiography
Kristen Brennand, PhD is the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Genetics at Yale University School of Medicine. She first established her independent laboratory in the Pamela Sklar Division of Psychiatric Genomics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2012, after having completed post-doctoral training at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and PhD studies at Harvard University. Dr. Brennand’s research combines expertise in genomic engineering, neuroscience, and stem cells, to identify the mechanisms that underlie brain disease. Her focus lies in resolving the convergence of, and complex interplay between, the many risk variants linked to disease, towards the goal of facilitating the clinical translation of genetic findings. Dr. Brennand’s work is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the New York Stem Cell Foundation, the Brain Research Foundation, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.
Appointments
Psychiatry
ProfessorPrimaryGenetics
ProfessorSecondary
Other Departments & Organizations
- Center for Brain & Mind Health
- Center for RNA Science and Medicine
- Genetics
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program
- Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics and Development
- Molecular Medicine, Pharmacology, and Physiology
- Neural Disorders
- Neuroscience Research Training Program (NRTP)
- Neuroscience Track
- Program in Translational Biomedicine (PTB)
- Psychiatry
- Wu Tsai Institute
- Yale Center for Genomic Health
- Yale Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS)
- Yale Stem Cell Center
Education & Training
- Post-doctoral scientist
- Salk Institute for Biological Studies (2012)
- PhD
- Harvard University, Molecular and Cellular Biology (2008)
- BSc (Hon)
- University of Calgary, Biology (2002)
Research
Overview
Each person’s distinct genetic, epigenetic, and environmental risk profile predisposes them to some phenotypes and confers resilience to others. My laboratory seeks to decode highly complex genetic insights into medically actionable information, better connecting the expanding list of genetic loci associated with human disease to pathophysiology. Our goal is to improve diagnostics, predict clinical trajectories, and identify pre-symptomatic points of therapeutic intervention.
Towards this, we employ a functional genomics approach that integrates stem cell models and genome engineering to resolve the impact of patient-specific variants across cell types, genetic backgrounds, and environmental conditions. Individually small risk effects combine to yield much larger impacts in aggregate, but the interactions between the myriad variants remain undetermined. Is there a “tipping point” between health and disease? Can ameliorative early interventions “untip” genetic disease risk? We seek to uncover disease-associated interactions within and between the cell types of the brain, querying the impacts of complex genetic risk within increasingly sophisticated neuronal circuits. Thus, we strive to translate risk “variants to genes”, “genes to pathways”, and “pathways to circuits”, revealing the convergent, additive, and synergistic relationships between risk factors within and between the cell types of the brain.
Even for highly penetrant mutations, a spectrum of phenotypes exist. We hope to understand the genetic, cellular, and environmental contexts that buffer genetic risk, and in doing so, develop interventions to help individuals achieve their greatest phenotypic potential. Thus, the variable penetrance of risk variants can be reframed as phenotypic resilience, evidence of biological “cures” capable of limiting, modifying, or preventing disease in individuals with otherwise high genetic predispositions. Such insights could identify therapeutics tailored to an individual’s specific risk profile, and so springboard the development of novel, personalized approaches to treat disease.
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
Academic Achievements and Community Involvement
Links & Media
Media
News
- June 05, 2024
Four Faculty Invited to Speak at Cold Spring Harbor's 2024 Schizophrenia and Related Disorders Course
- October 02, 2023Source: NPR-WSHU
A New Study Shows How Certain Genes Can Cause Brain Disorders Like Autism
- September 19, 2023
Investigators Launch Study Aimed at Accelerating Understanding of Bipolar Disorder
- August 14, 2023Source: Two Yale PhD Students Awarded Prestigious HHMI Gilliam Fellowships
Two BBS PhD Students Awarded Prestigious HHMI Gilliam Fellowships