Laura Huckins

Dr. Huckins is an Associate Professor in the Molecular Psychiatry Division at Yale University. Her research group is dedicated to understanding the roles of genetics and environment in psychiatric disorders, with a particular emphasis on Eating Disorders and PTSD. Her lab develops novel approaches to identify and characterize genetci regulation of higher order biology, primarily focusing on eQTLs (SNPs that regulate gene expression). Dr. Huckins’ group has applied these models to identify novel risk genes associated with schizophrenia, PTSD, and most recently, anoreixa nervosa, as well as answering key questions about developmental risk periods, tissue- and pathway-level involvement, and identifying metabolic and psychiatric risk factors in eating disorders. Most recently, students in Dr. Huckins’ lab have pioneered the study of interaction-QTLs, identifying variants that regulate gene expresison only in certain environmental contexts.

Dr. Huckins was awarded the highly prestigious Ted Reich Young Investigator Award from the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics in 2023. She is an elected member of the Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation, and the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering.