Tracy Young Pearse

Tracy Young-Pearse, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Neurology · Brigham and Women's Hospital
Associate Professor of Neurology · Harvard Medical School

tyoung@rics.bwh.harvard.edu
Hale Building for Transformative Medicine, 60 Fenwood Road, Boston, MA
Young-Pearse Laboratory

Dr. Tracy Young-Pearse is an assistant professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She began her independent research laboratory in the fall of 2010. Her laboratory uses molecular approaches to study the functions of genes involved in neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental diseases.

Dr. Young-Pearse received her undergraduate degree from Skidmore College in her hometown of Saratoga Springs, NY. She then went on to enter the Biomedical and Biological Sciences (BBS) program at Harvard Medical School where she received her PhD in genetics. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School under the mentorship of Dennis Selkoe.

The Young-Pearse lab aims to understand the in vivo functions of certain genes identified in neurodegenerative and developmental disorders of the human brain such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, lissencephaly, autism and mental retardation. Her laboratory uses a variety of molecular and biochemical techniques in conjunction with modeling in rodents and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to understand the normal and pathological functions of genes involved in these disorders. By elucidating the normal functions and mechanisms of action of these genes and how mutations cause pathology, she hopes to better understand both the fundamental causes of these devastating diseases and the normal development and functioning of the brain.


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