Voloudakis Laboratory

Voloudakis Laboratory

From functional genomics to precision psychiatry

Developing a Genetically Based Precision Medicine Approach in Psychiatry

Our group aims to leverage genomics to improve outcomes for patients suffering from neuropsychiatric disorders. Towards building a precision medicine approach for psychiatry, we are constructing genomic predictive models of the human brain to understand how genetic variation affects the transcriptional and epigenetic landscape. Subsequently, we apply these models to:

  • Existing genetic studies to understand more about the biology of disease and to improve existing drug development and repurposing approaches
  • Biobanks with electronic health record information, such as the Million Veteran Program (MVP), All of Us, BioMe and UK Biobank (UKBB) to identify disease subgroups, stratify risk and model medication response

We collaborate closely with the Roussos, Akbarian, Björkegren, Bigdeli, Fanous, Harvey, Davis and Smoller laboratories towards common milestones in the field.

Current Projects

Towards achieving our long-term goal of building a framework for genetically based precision and personalized medicine approaches in psychiatry, we are developing and optimizing the necessary tools and strategies for:

  • Improved genomic feature imputation
  • Expanding imputation approaches beyond the transcriptome to include the epigenome and other multiomics datasets
  • data-driven integration of imputed molecular features
  • Deep phenotyping of individuals based on information of Electronic Health Records
  • Computational drug repurposing and drug development
  • Better collaboration between sites

Genetics of neuropsychiatric disorders. Via collaborations with multiple groups we are contributing to the elucidation of the genetic architecture of multiple disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, suicidal behavior, etc. across diverse population groups.

Reducing the stigma of mental health disorders by understanding the pleiotropy of their risk variants. Neuropsychiatric disorders are moderately to highly heritable and a lot of genetic variants that confer risk have been identified over the past two decades. Some of these variants are quite common and it would make sense from an evolutionary perspective for them to have “survived” because they also have beneficial functions either for the individual or for the society. We aim to identify these trade-offs to understand the potentially beneficial impact they have in our world and to our societies.

Funding:
NIH, NIA, R01AG078657, Identifying genetically driven gene dysregulation in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias using statistical data integration
NIH, NIMH, K08MH122911, Characterizing and targeting subphenotypes of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder via individually imputed tissue and cell-type specific transcriptomes
BBRF, Elucidating the genetic basis of suicidal behavior (completed)
NIH, NIA, P50AG005138 (Parent), Pilot 35-3, Identifying genetically-driven microglial gene expression changes in AD (completed)
Leon Levy Foundation, Neuroscience Fellowship (completed)

CV

Recent and Selected Publications

Development of statistical genetics and translational genomics approaches for gene target prioritization and computational drug repurposing
Leveraging genotyped biobanks with electronic medical records to empower genetic discovery and pleiotropy interrogation for neuropsychiatric traits
Transcriptome- and epigenome-wide association studies
Molecular Pathophysiology of Neuropsychiatric Disorders

 Authors contributed equally to this work; Corresponding authors

Team

Sanan Venkatesh, BSc
Graduate student (GDS)
sanan.venkatesh {at} icahn.mssm.edu
07/01/2020 – Present
Scholar | LinkedIn

Co-mentor: Panos Roussos
– 12/2020 Society for Neuroscience (SfN) Trainee Professional Development Award (TPDA)

Simone Tomasi, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
simone.tomasi {at} mssm.edu
07/01/2020 – Present
Scholar | LinkedIn
 
Co-mentor: Panos Roussos
– 09/2020 Million Veteran Program (MVP) Early Stage Investigator (ESI) Award
David Burstein, PhD
Senior Data Scientist
david.burstein2 {at} mssm.edu
03/01/2021 – Present
Scholar | LinkedIn
 
Co-mentor: Panos Roussos
Karen Therrien, MS
Bioinformatician
karen.therrien {at} icahn.mssm.edu
05/19/2021 – Present
Scholar | LinkedIn
 
Co-mentor: Panos Roussos
Vlad Velicu, MD, MS
Psychiatry Resident (Clinical track)
vlad.velicu {at} mountsinai.org
07/01/2021 – Present
Scholar | LinkedIn
Co-mentor: Panos Roussos
Deepika Mathur, PhD
Senior Bioinformatician
deepika.mathur {at} mssm.edu
11/01/2021 – Present
Scholar | LinkedIn
 
Co-mentor: Panos Roussos
Chenyu Liu, MS
Graduate Student
chenyu.liu {at} icahn.mssm.edu
03/21/2023 – Present
Scholar | LinkedIn
 
Co-mentor: Panos Roussos
Bukola Ajanaku, BS
MD/PhD student
bukola.ajanaku {at} icahn.mssm.edu
07/06/2023 – Present
Scholar | LinkedIn
 
Co-mentor: Panos Roussos
JoonHo Seo, PhD
Associate Scientist (wet lab lead)
joonho.seo {at} mssm.edu
07/14/2023 – Present
Scholar | LinkedIn
Rachel Bercovitch, MS
Bioinformatician
rachel.bercovitch {at} mssm.edu
07/31/2023 – Present
Scholar | LinkedIn
Co-mentor: Panos Roussos
Zhenyi Wu, MS
Bioinformatician
zhenyi.wu {at} mssm.edu
08/14/2023 – Present
 
Co-mentor: Panos Roussos
Marios Anyfantakis, MD
Postdoctoral Fellow
marios.anyfantakis {at} mssm.edu
10/02/2023 – Present
Scholar | LinkedIn
Neha Ahmed, BS
Associate Researcher
neha.ahmed {at} mssm.edu
11/13/2023 – Present
Scholar | LinkedIn
Co-mentor: JoonHo Seo

Fotios

Fotios Tsetsos, PhD
Senior Bioinformatician
fotios.tsetsos {at} mssm.edu
03/04/2024 – Present

Jamie Bennet, PhD
Senior Bioinformatician (data scientist)
jamie.bennett {at} mssm.edu
03/25/2024 – Present
Scholar | LinkedIn
Co-mentors: Panos Roussos and David Burstein

Suzannah S. De Almeida
Graduate Student (Neuroscience)
suzannah.dealmeida {at} icahn.mssm.edu
05/13/2024 – Present

Want to join our team?
Open positions: none at this moment.
We are looking for talented scientists and engineers. Email: georgios.voloudakis {at} mssm.edu to discuss career opportunities.

  • 2021-07-01 to 2023-08-27 (High School Student): Ciella Angel-Lalanne. Scholar | LinkedIn
Location
Hess CSM Floor 9
1470 Madison Ave
Phone:
Office: (212) 659-9282
Lab:
georgios.voloudakis {at} mssm.edu