Integrative Mental Health Laboratory, the IMHL
About
We are a lab at Stanford University, in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. We analyze large-scale genomic datasets in order to identify the specific genetic variants and biological pathways contributing to psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and PTSD.
Laramie Duncan, PhD (PI)
Dr. Duncan is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and Director of the IMHL. She received a joint PhD in Neuroscience and Clinical Psychology from the University of Colorado and then continued clinical training at Harvard Medical School and postdoctoral work in Statistical Genetics at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Dr. Duncan led genetic analyses for international groups and, in 2018, founded the Cross-Population Special Interest Group within the international Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. With a unique combination of computational skills and training in the foundations of clinical interventions and neuroscience, Dr. Duncan has a track record of executing high impact projects, and her work has been cited over 13,000 times. Her long-term goal is to make genetic discoveries about psychiatric disorders, and then to link those genetic findings to neurobiological processes, so that better treatments can be developed for disorders like schizophrenia and PTSD.
Publications - Google Scholar
University site - Stanford
Core Principles
Our lab is dedicated to scientific rigor and reproducibility, as evidenced by Dr. Duncan's highly cited work on reproducibility (1,000+ citations for articles on this topic). This is important because the problem of poor reproducibility plagues many areas of genetics, neuroscience, and psychiatry. The large-scale genomic investigations currently undertaken in the lab are chosen, in part, because they are not susceptible to the problems of poor reproducibility that affect many areas of mental health research. A commitment to diversity and more equitable distribution of opportunities is another core value in the lab. We welcome students from underrepresented backgrounds and actively seek to reduce inequality and discrimination in our personal lives and through our work.
Contact
We are located on the Stanford campus in the Psychiatry Building:
401 Quarry Road
Stanford, CA 94305
Funding
Research was made possible by these funders
