PhD
Associate Professor, Genetics
UNC-Chapel Hill
Cancer Genetics
Area of Interest
Jason L. Stein, PhD, runs a lab exploring how variations in the genome change the structure and development of the brain, and in doing so, create risk for neuropsychiatric illness.
Stein studies genetic effects on multiple aspects of the human brain, from macroscale phenotypes like gross human brain structure measured with MRI to molecular phenotypes like gene expression and chromatin accessibility measured with genome-sequencing technologies. Stein also uses neural progenitor cells as a modifiable and high fidelity model system to understand how disease-associated variants affect brain development.
His recent work focuses on how stimulation of the Wnt pathway, a key signaling pathway in cancer, modulates gene regulation and proliferation in neural progenitor cells.
Awards and Honors
- NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, 2013–2019
- UNC Junior Faculty Development Award, 2018