Spotlight on Faculty Research: Autism

Eric Courchesne
Eric Courchesne is a professor in the Department of Neurosciences and the overall director and principle investigator of the UCSD Autism Center of Excellence. He is also the director of the UCSD Autism Center's MRI Project on early brain development in autism. Courchesne is one of the world's leading experts on the neurobiology of autism, and his efforts have produced new information about the structural, functional, and genetic bases of this disorder. More…

Lisa T. Eyler
Lisa Eyler is an associate adjunct professor in the Department of Psychiatry. The focus of her research is exploring the structure and function of the brain in individuals across the lifespan. She is particularly interested in the effects of neuropsychiatric disorders and age, and on relating cognitive performance to brain measures. More…

Fred Gage
Fred Gage is a professor in the Department of Neurosciences and he is one of the co-directors of the Autism Center's Gene Association Project. He is a world-recognized neuroscientist and an expert on neural stem cells, as well as the understanding and treatment of some of the most devastating neurological disorders. More…

Karen Pierce
Karen Pierce is an assistant adjunct professor in the Department of Neurosciences, and director of Clinical Research and Functional Brain Imaging at the UCSD Autism Center of Excellence. She has been in the field of autism research for over 20 years and began her career studying ways to treat autism through various behavioral therapies. After a decade of clinical research, she turned her attention to the brain and received a training award to re-specialize in functional brain imaging. More…

Laura Schreibman
Laura Schreibman is a distinguished professor of psychology and she currently directs the UCSD Autism Intervention Research Program, a federally funded research program focusing on the experimental analysis and treatment of autism. With more than 30 years of experience in the behavioral treatment and experimental analysis of autism, Schreibman is one of the world's leading authorities in the field. More…

Nicholas Schork
Nicholas Schork is a professor of psychiatry and director of the Autism Center's Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core and the co-director of the Center's Gene Association Project. He is one of the world's experts on gene variation and sophisticated statistical methodology to analyze phenotype-genotype interactions, and has published in Science, Genomics, American Journal of Human Genetics, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. More…

Ming Tsuang
Ming Tsuang is a distinguished professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Behavioral Genomics with the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego. He is also the Behavioral Genomics Endowed Chair and University Professor at the University of California. He has investigated the genetic and environmental determinants of mental and behavioral disorders for over three decades, including several gene expression studies. More…