Janitza Montalvo-Ortiz, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry, is featured on Atlas of Inspiring Hispanic/Latinx Scientists, a grassroots effort developed to showcase the expertise, talents, and diversity of Hispanic and Latinx scientific faculty.
The Atlas is an ongoing effort to promote the work of inspiring Hispanic and Latinx scientists. It is published as a website hosted by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Featured scientists are identified through a nomination system.
Montalvo-Ortiz, who leads the Laboratory of Neuroepigenetics and Psychiatric Genomics and part of the Division of Human Genetics at Yale School of Medicine, studies the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms associated with psychiatry disorders, with a focus on post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, and major depressive disorder. She investigates how trauma-related events increase the vulnerability to develop mental disorders later in life. Her lab employs computational approaches to multi-omics datasets to better understand the underlying molecular mechanisms and identify predictors or biomarkers of psychiatric disorders.