Olfson Lab

Emily Olfson leads the Olfson Lab, where we study how genetic factors shape early brain development and contribute to mental health conditions in children and adults. We use genetic data, clinical information, and cellular models to identify biological pathways that influence mental health conditions. A central focus of the lab is building and analyzing large-scale genomic cohorts of families; we examine hundreds of individuals to find genetic changes linked to anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), trichotillomania, excoriation (skin-picking) disorder, tic disorders, ADHD, misophonia, and related conditions. We use statistical genetics, computational modeling, and bioinformatic tools to uncover patterns in the data. Her lab is motivated by the hope that this work could help us understand early biological changes that contribute to childhood-onset mental health conditions, which may guide earlier identification, more personalized treatments, and new prevention strategies.

The Olfson Lab is located in the Child Study Center and it is affiliated with the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Program in Translational Biomedicine, Program in Human Genome Sciences, and Wu Tsai Institute