Lauren Weiss, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry

Research Summary:

The Genetics of Autism

(415) 476-7650

lauren.weiss@ucsf.edu

Additional Websites:Lab Website Institute for Human Genetics Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program

View Selected Publications

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My laboratory focuses on understanding the genetic and molecular basis of autism. We are working with genome-wide SNP array data to identify additional susceptibility loci, the genetic and cellular mechanisms by which DNA variants influence autism risk, and the genetic and physiological pathways these risk loci implicate. We can use this rich dataset to ask questions about the genetic architecture of autism, the role for copy number vs. SNP variation, the genetic contribution to the imbalanced sex ratio in autism, and even start to identify novel pathways and the relationship between phenotypic and genetic heterogeneity.

We are also using cell culture models to test functional effects of risk loci using neural stem cells. We will first identify the effects of genetic risk variants and then be able to ascertain whether the effects of genetic risk can be modified at the cellular level by environmental or pharmacological agents.

In the long term, one of my primary goals is building a collaborative autism research sample with rich phenotypic data in order to utilize genetic information to identify biological subsets of autism, enhance assessment of autism risk, and improve prediction of treatment effectiveness.

Selected Publications

Weiss , LA ; Arking , DE ; Gene Discovery Project of Johns Hopkins and the Autism Consortium. Genome-wide scan reveals significant linkage and association to autism. In Revision.

Miller, DT; Shen, Y; Weiss , LA ; Korn, J; Anselm, I; Bridge-Mohan, C; Cox, G; Dickinson , H; Gentile, J; Harris, D; Hegde, V; Hundley, R; Khwaja, O; Kothare, S; Luedke, C; Nasir, R; Poduri, A; Prasad, K; Raffalli, P; Reinhard, A; Sahin, M; Smith, S; Sobeih, M; Soul, J; Stoler, J; Takeoka, M; Tan, WH; Thakuria, J; Waisbren, S; Yusupov, R; Gusella, JF; Daly, MJ; Wu, BL. 2008, Microdeletion/duplication at 15q13.2q13.3 among individuals with features of autism and other neuropsychiatric disorders. J Med Genet. Epub.

Weiss, LA; Shen, Y; Korn, JM; Arking, DE; Miller, DT; Fossdal, R; Saemundsen, E; Stefansson, H; Ferreira, MAR ; Green, T; Platt, OS; Ruderfer, DM; Walsh, CA; Altshuler, D; Chakravarti, A; Tanzi, RE; Stefansson, K; Santangelo, SL; Gusella, JF; Sklar, P; Wu, B-L; Daly, MJ. 2008, Association between Microdeletion and Microduplication at 16p11.2 and Autism. NEJM. 358(7):667-75.

Kim, H-G; Kishikawa, S; Higgins, A; Seung, I-S; Donovan, D; Shen, Y; Lally, E; Weiss, LA; Najm, J; Kutsche, K; Descartes, M; Holt, L; Braddock, S; Troxell, R; Kaplan, L; Volkmar, F; Klin, A; Tsatsanis, K; Noens, I; Pauls, D; Daly, MJ; MacDonald, ME; Morton, CC; Quade, BJ; Gusella, JF. 2008, Disruption of neurexin 1 (NRXN1) associated with autism spectrum disorder. Am J Hum Genet. 82(1):199-207.

Cross, S; Kim, S-J; Weiss, LA; Delahanty, RJ; Sutcliffe, JS; Leventhal, BL; Cook, EH; Veenstra-VanderWeele, J. 2008, Molecular genetics of the platelet serotonin system in first-degree relatives of patients with autism. Neuropsychopharmacology. 33(2):353-60.

Thompson, EE; Pan, L; Ostrovnaya, I; Weiss, LA; Gern, JE; Lemanske, RF; Nicolae, DL; Ober, C. 2007, ITGB3 genotype influences asthma and allergy phenotypes in the first six years of life. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 119(6):1423-9.

Weiss, LA: Purcell, S; Waggoner, S; Lawrence, K; Spektor, D; Daly, MJ; Sklar, P; Skuse, D. 2007, Identification of EFHC2 as a quantitative trait locus for fear recognition in Turner syndrome. Hum Mol Genet. 16(1):107-13.

Weiss , LA ; Ober, C; Cook, EH. 2006, ITGB3 shows genetic and expression interaction with SLC6A4 . Hum Genet. 120(1):93-100.

Weiss , LA ; Kosova, G; Delahanty, RJ; Jiang, L; Cook, EH; Ober, C; Sutcliffe, JS. 2006, Variation in ITGB3 is associated with serotonin level and autism susceptibility. Eur J Hum Genet. 14(8):923-31.

Weiss , LA ; Pan, L; Abney, M; Ober, C . 2006, The sex-specific genetic architecture of quantitative traits in Humans. Nature Genetics. 38(2):218-222.

Kurina, LM; Weiss, LA; Graves, SW; Parry, R; Williams, GH; Abney, M; Ober, C. 2005, Sex differences in the genetic basis of morning serum cortisol levels: genome-wide screen identifies two novel loci specific to women. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 90(8):4747-52.

Weiss, LA; Lester, LA; Gern, JE; Wolf, RL; Lemanske, RF; Solway, J; Ober, C 2005, Variation in the integrin b 3 gene is associated with asthma and atopy in four populations. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 172(1):67-73.

Weiss , LA ; Abney, M; Parry, R; Scanu, AM; Cook Jr, EH; Ober, C. 2005, Variation in ITGB3 has sex-specific associations with plasma lipoprotein(a) and whole blood serotonin levels in a population-based sample. Hum Genet. 117(1): 81-87.

Weiss , LA ; Abney, M; Cook, EH; Ober, C. 2005, Sex-specific genetic architechture of whole blood serotonin levels. Am J Hum Genet. 76(1): 33-41.

Weiss, LA; Veenstra-VanderWeele, J; Abney, M; Newman, DL; Kim, S-J; Dytch, H; McPeek, MS; Cheng, S; Ober, C; Cook, EH, (2004), Genome-wide association study identifies ITGB3 as a QTL for whole blood serotonin. Eur J Hum Genet. 12(11): 949-54.

Weiss, LA; Escayg, E; Kearney, JA; Trudeau, M; MacDonald, BT; Mori, M; Reichert, J; Buxbaum, J; Meisler, MH, (2003), Genetic variants of the neuronal sodium channels SCN1A, SCN2A and SCN3A in patients with familial autism. Mol Psychiatry 8(2): 186-94.