Sathvik Palakurty

Program: Immunology

Current advisor: Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD

Undergraduate university: University of Miami, 2019

Enrollment year: 2020

Research summary
Identify casual genetic variants underlying neuropsychiatric traits

This past summer I worked in the lab of Dr. Joseph Corbo. In the past decade, scientists have invested a tremendous amount of effort in conducting genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for various neuropsychiatric phenotypes such as anxiety, neuroticism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. However, the resolution of GWAS is constrained by linkage disequilibrium making identifying casual variants difficult. By integrating open-chromatin data and GWAS signal, I designed a massively parallel reporter assay in which I can measure the effect of a variant on enhancer activity in a multiplexed fashion.

Graduate publications