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Chris Cotsapas, PhD

Professor of Neurology; Professor of Genetics, Genetics

Contact Information

Chris Cotsapas, PhD

Mailing Address

  • Neurology

    300 George St

    New Haven, CT 06510

    United States

Cotsapas Lab

Research Summary

We are trying to understand how diseases of the brain and immune system arise, what drives them, and what processes we might target to develop new therapies. We are also trying to understand why men and women develop these diseases at different rates and experience different symptoms and severity: over 80% of multiple sclerosis patients are women, for example, but we do not understand why.

Our approach encompasses statistical and computational tools, genetics and molecular biology. We are a hybrid lab with strong quantitative and experimental skills and we cycle between hypotheses generated by rigorous analysis and confirmation and discovery in experimental systems.

Coauthors

Research Interests

Arthritis, Rheumatoid; Autoimmune Diseases; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1; Epilepsy; Genetics; Genetics, Medical; Genetics, Population; Graves Disease; Immune System Diseases; Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic; Multiple Sclerosis; Thyroiditis, Autoimmune; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases; Human Genome Project; Computational Biology; Autoimmune Diseases of the Nervous System; Demyelinating Autoimmune Diseases, CNS; Genomics; Genetic Research; Systems Biology

Selected Publications

  • Immune-mediated disease genetics: the shared basis of pathogenesis.Cotsapas C, Hafler DA. Immune-mediated disease genetics: the shared basis of pathogenesis. Trends In Immunology 2013, 34: 22-6. PMID: 23031829, DOI: 10.1016/j.it.2012.09.001.
  • Protein array-based profiling of CSF identifies RBPJ as an autoantigen in multiple sclerosis.Querol L, Clark PL, Bailey MA, Cotsapas C, Cross AH, Hafler DA, Kleinstein SH, Lee JY, Yaari G, Willis SN, O'Connor KC. Protein array-based profiling of CSF identifies RBPJ as an autoantigen in multiple sclerosis. Neurology 2013, 81: 956-63. PMID: 23921886, PMCID: PMC3888197, DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182a43b48.
  • Do monogenic inborn errors of immunity cause susceptibility to severe COVID-19?Cotsapas C, Saarela J, Farmer JR, Scaria V, Abraham RS. Do monogenic inborn errors of immunity cause susceptibility to severe COVID-19? The Journal Of Clinical Investigation 2021, 131 PMID: 34061775, PMCID: PMC8279660, DOI: 10.1172/JCI149459.
  • Sex-Dependent Shared and Nonshared Genetic Architecture Across Mood and Psychotic Disorders.Blokland GAM, Grove J, Chen CY, Cotsapas C, Tobet S, Handa R, St Clair D, Lencz T, Mowry BJ, Periyasamy S, Cairns MJ, Tooney PA, Wu JQ, Kelly B, Kirov G, Sullivan PF, Corvin A, Riley BP, Esko T, Milani L, Jönsson EG, Palotie A, Ehrenreich H, Begemann M, Steixner-Kumar A, Sham PC, Iwata N, Weinberger DR, Gejman PV, Sanders AR, Buxbaum JD, Rujescu D, Giegling I, Konte B, Hartmann AM, Bramon E, Murray RM, Pato MT, Lee J, Melle I, Molden E, Ophoff RA, McQuillin A, Bass NJ, Adolfsson R, Malhotra AK, Martin NG, Fullerton JM, Mitchell PB, Schofield PR, Forstner AJ, Degenhardt F, Schaupp S, Comes AL, Kogevinas M, Guzman-Parra J, Reif A, Streit F, Sirignano L, Cichon S, Grigoroiu-Serbanescu M, Hauser J, Lissowska J, Mayoral F, Müller-Myhsok B, Świątkowska B, Schulze TG, Nöthen MM, Rietschel M, Kelsoe J, Leboyer M, Jamain S, Etain B, Bellivier F, Vincent JB, Alda M, O'Donovan C, Cervantes P, Biernacka JM, Frye M, McElroy SL, Scott LJ, Stahl EA, Landén M, Hamshere ML, Smeland OB, Djurovic S, Vaaler AE, Andreassen OA, Baune BT, Air T, Preisig M, Uher R, Levinson DF, Weissman MM, Potash JB, Shi J, Knowles JA, Perlis RH, Lucae S, Boomsma DI, Penninx BWJH, Hottenga JJ, de Geus EJC, Willemsen G, Milaneschi Y, Tiemeier H, Grabe HJ, Teumer A, Van der Auwera S, Völker U, Hamilton SP, Magnusson PKE, Viktorin A, Mehta D, Mullins N, Adams MJ, Breen G, McIntosh AM, Lewis CM, Hougaard DM, Nordentoft M, Mors O, Mortensen PB, Werge T, Als TD, Børglum AD, Petryshen TL, Smoller JW, Goldstein JM. Sex-Dependent Shared and Nonshared Genetic Architecture Across Mood and Psychotic Disorders. Biological Psychiatry 2022, 91: 102-117. PMID: 34099189, PMCID: PMC8458480, DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.02.972.
  • Genetic variation and the control of transcription.Cotsapas C, Chan E, Kirk M, Tanaka M, Little P. Genetic variation and the control of transcription. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia On Quantitative Biology 2003, 68: 109-14. PMID: 15338608, DOI: 10.1101/sqb.2003.68.109.
  • Expression analysis of loci associated with type 2 diabetes in human tissues.Cotsapas C, Prokunina-Olsson L, Welch C, Saxena R, Weaver C, Usher N, Guiducci C, Bonakdar S, Turner N, LaCroix B, Hall JL. Expression analysis of loci associated with type 2 diabetes in human tissues. Diabetologia 2010, 53: 2334-9. PMID: 20703447, DOI: 10.1007/s00125-010-1861-2.
  • MHC associations with clinical and autoantibody manifestations in European SLE.Morris DL, Fernando MM, Taylor KE, Chung SA, Nititham J, Alarcón-Riquelme ME, Barcellos LF, Behrens TW, Cotsapas C, Gaffney PM, Graham RR, Pons-Estel BA, Gregersen PK, Harley JB, Hauser SL, Hom G, Langefeld CD, Noble JA, Rioux JD, Seldin MF, Vyse TJ, Criswell LA. MHC associations with clinical and autoantibody manifestations in European SLE. Genes And Immunity 2014, 15: 210-7. PMID: 24598797, PMCID: PMC4102853, DOI: 10.1038/gene.2014.6.
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