SCSB Colloquium with Dr. Jason Lerch: Towards Biologically Informed Subgroups Across Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2026 Location: 46-3002 (Singleton Auditorium) Time: 4:00pm-5:00pm ET, followed by reception Speaker: Jason Lerch, Ph.D. Affiliation: Professor of Neuroscience, Oxford Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of Oxford Host: Dr. Alan Jasanoff Talk title: Towards Biologically Informed Subgroups Across Neurodevelopmental Disorders Abstract: Autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions are remarkably diverse, making it difficult to predict outcomes or identify effective treatments. In this talk, I will describe a translational neuroimaging approach that combines data from 135 mouse models (3,515 mice) with two human MRI cohorts (n = 1,234 and n = 1,015) to identify subgroups based on shared patterns of brain anatomy. Rather than reflecting conventional diagnoses such as autism, ADHD, or OCD, these subgroups appear to align with a small number of molecular pathways, including those involved in synaptic function, MAPK/Wnt signalling, chromatin regulation, and immune-related processes. These findings suggest that neurobiological subgroups may provide a useful framework for linking diverse clinical presentations to underlying molecular mechanisms.