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David Pauls, Ph.D.
Address:
Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Simches Research Building
185 Cambridge St., 6th floor
Boston, MA 02114
Phone Number: (617) 726-0793
Email: dpauls@partners.org
Administrative Contact: Jarred Knapp (jknapp@partners.org)
Phone: (617) 643-3667 |
Dr. Pauls became director of the newly created PNGU in September 2001. Prior to coming to Harvard, he was the
Professor of Psychiatric and Neurobehavioral Genetics in the Child Study Center at Yale University. Over the past 25 years, his research has focused primarily on the genetics of child neuropsychiatric disorders. Research under his direction has led to a better understanding of the inheritance of GTS, OCD and dyslexia. At the present time he leads an international consortium of investigators devoted to finding genes for GTS and related conditions.
Dr. Pauls is a Professor of Psychiatry (Genetics) and Director of the Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit in the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Prior to moving to the Harvard Medical School in September 2001, he was the Professor of Psychiatric and Neurobehavioral Genetics in the Child Study Center at Yale University. Dr. Pauls completed his Ph.D. in Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of Minnesota with a focus on human population genetics. His Ph.D. research examined the genetics of mental retardation and giftedness. After completing his Ph.D. he was a post-doctoral fellow in psychiatric genetics in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa and psychiatric genetic epidemiology in the Department of Human Genetics at Yale School of Medicine.
Over the last 25 years, his research has focused on understanding the underlying genetic mechanisms important for the expression of human behavior. His primary goal has been to understand the etiologic mechanisms (both genetic and non-genetic) that underlie the manifestation of specific behaviors that begin in childhood and continue over the life course. His research has focused on four different developmental neuropsychiatric disorders: the Gilles de la Tourette syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), high functioning autism/Asperger's syndrome and specific reading disability. In the past decade, the approach has been to examine components of the clinical phenomenology of each of these conditions and their transmission within families. Over the years, Dr. Pauls' laboratory has employed clinical, quantitative and molecular genetic approaches, including:
- family/genetic studies
- segregation studies examining the transmission of specific phenotypes
- genetic linkage and association studies designed to localize and characterize genes that confer susceptibility to these conditions
- prospective longitudinal studies designed to exploit the linkage findings to examine the interactions of identified genes and environmental factors
Dr. Pauls' current research efforts focus on Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome,
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, Specific Reading Disability and
Bipolar Affective Disorder.
Reference Links for Families
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