Laramie Duncan, PhD

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Dr. Duncan is the PI of the Integrative Mental Health Laboratory (Duncan Lab) and is an Assistant Professor at Stanford in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.  With a joint PhD in neuroscience and clinical psychology, Dr. Duncan's long term goal is to discover mechanisms underlying mental health problems, especially schizophrenia and PTSD. Dr. Duncan undertook extensive postdoctoral training in statistical genetics and she leads genomic analyses for international consortia.  Projects include both primary discovery efforts and translational analyses to yield mechanistic targets for novel therapeutics.  

Rebecca Lawn, PhD

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Dr. Lawn is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (part time IMHL). She gained a first-class BSc (hons) in Psychology from Newcastle University and received her PhD from the University of Bristol, where she worked between the School of Psychological Science and the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit. Dr. Lawn’s  applied Mendelian randomization to investigate causal relationships in evolutionary theories of development and behavior with a focus on life history theory (concentrating on age at menarche and age at first sexual intercourse) and schizophrenia.  Her current research interests include the relation of trauma exposure, trauma types and PTSD with health over the life course.

Hanyang Shen, MPH

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Hanyang Shen received her MPH degree in Epidemiology from Drexel University. Her research interests are identifying risk factors and effective treatments for mental diseases using data from various sources, including longitudinal and cross-sectional studies, clinical trials, national cohorts, and genetic databases. Hanyang’s current focus in Dr. Duncan’s group is to understand genetic components of psychiatric diseases by using methods such as genome-wide association study (GWAS), pathway analysis, and polygenic risk scores (PRS).  

Jacob Reiter

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Jacob Reiter is a graduate researcher at IMHL and current Stanford grad student in computer science (biocomputation track). His undergrad at Stanford was in Symbolic Systems. He is passionate about applying novel computational techniques towards mental illness. His previous work included developing an interpretable schizophrenia classifier on brain imaging data. He also serves as the Stanford MSCS mental health information network representative. For fun, Jacob reads literature on botany and watches inordinate amounts of "Survivor." 

Bryna Cooper

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Bryna Cooper, M.S., is a graduate student in clinical psychology at PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium. She is passionate about working with PTSD and complex trauma through both translational research and direct clinical work. Her research interests are primarily centered on understanding the risk and resiliency factors involved in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Bryna has completed numerous clinical placements in the San Francisco-Bay Area focused on the mental health treatment of trauma survivors. Currently, she is providing clinical services to Veterans as part of the PTSD Clinical Team at the San Francisco VA.  Her work in the lab is focused on sex and gender related differences in PTSD.   

Benson Kung

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Benson Kung is a senior at Stanford studying math and computer science. Like others in the IMHL, he is passionate about solving mental health problems. When not working, Benson likes to make short films and cook. 

Katy Werwath

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Katy is a sophomore at Stanford studying CS on the biocomputation track. She is passionate about mental health and is fascinated by how genes can translate into abstract emotions and behaviors. She’s also a peer counselor at The Bridge, an outreach intern for Stanford’s Society of Women Engineers, and a tutor-mentor for East Palo Alto middle schoolers. When not up late coding, you can find her walking her poodle, paddle boarding in the Bay, and watching way too much of The Great British Baking Show!

Tayden Li​

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Tayden is a junior at Stanford majoring in math and computational science (MCS). He is passionate about medicine and mental health and is especially interested in applying computational tools to discover how genes impact our behavior and mental wellbeing. He also serves as a preclinical volunteer chair and a Mandarin interpreter chair at Stanford’s Pacific Free Clinic as well as a social chair at Taiwanese Cultural Society. In his free time, he loves to watch shows like Bojack Horseman that have interesting perspectives on well-being and psychiatric disorders.

Alumni

Maurice Chiang

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Maurice Chiang received his bachelors in bioengineering at Stanford in 2019, and is currently in a computer science graduate program. He is fascinated with data-driven approaches to mental health problems. In his free time, Maurice can be found in the ceramics studio working on sculptures and installations. 

Joeri Meijsen

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Joeri Meijsen, PhD holds a Master’s degree in computer science from the University of Leiden (Netherlands) and a PhD in statistical genetics and machine learning from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland). During his PhD he focused on developing new statistical and bioinformatics tools for the detection of genetic contributions to psychiatric disorders. Research interests include population genetics, examining the contribution of genetic interaction with environmental risk factors, developing novel statistical methodologies, and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Alex Bhatt

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Alexander “Alex” Bhatt is a junior at Stanford University double majoring in Human Biology and History. His research interests include epidemiology, congenital and developmental disorders, and emerging technologies as they relate to the evolving field of medicine. Some activities he does that give him life are being a counselor and Outdoor Leadership Coordinator at Camp Kesem Stanford, volunteering through organizations such as Kids with Dreams and Servant Breakfast, and spending time with his first-year residents as a resident advisor. For fun, Alex enjoys competing as part of Stanford’s club rugby team, going to concerts, and playing pick-up basketball.