André M. M. Sousa
Position title: Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience
Email: andre.sousa@wisc.edu
Department:
Neuroscience
Education:
Ph.D. in Basic and Applied Biology, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
Postdoctoral in Developmental Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine, CT, USA
Research Description:
The broad goals of our research program are to identify and characterize the molecular and cellular mechanisms that govern human brain development and evolution, and to apply that knowledge towards understanding neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders.
In my laboratory at the Waisman center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, we apply a multifaceted approach that combines:
1) genomic studies to identify the genes (and the regulatory elements that control their expression) that elucidate human–specific aspects of brain development.
2) developmental neurobiology studies that combine induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, mouse genetic models, and postmortem human and non–human primate (NHP) brains to characterize the functions of those candidate genes in the development of the brain.
3) molecular and cellular biology studies that inform the mechanisms that are disrupted by alterations in those genes, particularly the ones that are associated with neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorder.
Research Key Words:
Human Brain Development and Evolution, Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Functional Genomics