Leadership

Dr. Geschwind is the Gordon and Virginia MacDonald Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, Neurology and Psychiatry at UCLA. In his capacity as Senior Associate Dean and Associate Vice Chancellor of Precision Health, he leads the Institute for Precision Health (IPH) at UCLA. In his laboratory, his group has pioneered the application of systems biology methods in neurologic and psychiatric disease, with a focus on autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and neurodegenerative conditions.

Dr. Lajonchere’s research has focused on disorders affecting the central nervous system with an emphasis on psychiatric genetics and translational medicine. She has held several academic and leadership positions including Director of the NIH Center for Genomic and Phenomic Studies in Autism at the USC Keck School of Medicine and Vice President of Clinical Programs for the science and advocacy organization, Autism Speaks. Dr. Lajonchere has worked in the field of autism for over a decade. 

Dr. Krakow received her bachelor's degree from Arizona State University in Tempe and her medical degree from Chicago Medical School. After an internship and residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, she completed fellowships in maternal-fetal medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and in research and clinical genetics at the UCLA Intercampus Medical Genetics Training Program.

Kitai Kim received training with Dr. George Daley at Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, where he investigated histocompatible parthenogenetic embryonic stem cells (pESC) and their genetic signatures (Science, 2007 and Cell Stem Cell, 2007). Consequently, he expanded his postdoctoral research to define the epigenetic memory of inducible pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) in mice and humans (Nature, 2010 and Nature Biotech, 2011).

Dr. Longo is a Professor and Vice Chair of Human Genetics at UCLA. Dr. Longo earned his M.D. and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the University of Parma in Italy, trained in Pediatrics, Medical Genetics, and Clinical Biochemical Genetics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and was the Chief of Medical Genetics at the University of Utah before joining UCLA. His research is developing and testing new therapies for patients with rare genetic and inherited metabolic diseases.

Dr. Stanley F. Nelson is Professor and Vice Chair of Human Genetics and Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA. A leader in genomics, he helped pioneer DNA microarray technology and implemented clinical exome sequencing at UCLA. He co-founded the Center for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and leads efforts in rare disease diagnosis through the Undiagnosed Diseases Network. His research focuses on applying genomics to autism, ADHD, cancer, and other complex diseases.