Center for Population Neuroscience and Genetics (PNG)

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Our Research Approach

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Dr. Fan's center focuses on the complex interactions between genes and environment that shape the human brain. We have developed data analytic approaches and bioinformatic pipelines for three different study domains:

• Large scale multi-modal neuroimaging analyses
• Polygenic inferences
• National registries and biobanks

Dr. Fan has published more than 90 peer-reviewed journal articles with an h-index of 31. He is also the co-chair of the genetic working group of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, the largest imaging genetic study in United States, and has received multiple R01 grants from National Institute of Mental Health. 

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CONTACT DR. FAN

Visit the PNG Center

Research Program Highlights

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Large-scale Multi-modal Neuroimaging Analyses

We are developing multivariate methods to enhance the power and validity of associating brain measures with behavioral outcomes and to obtain unbiased estimates of the impact of genetics and environment on behavioral outcomes, as mediated by multi-modal neuroimaging data.  
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Polygenic Inferences

We utilize the genetics as an inferential instrument for gaining insight into the molecular processes underlying brain development. We are particularly interested in a) genetic determinants on high-dimensional multivariate outcomes, b) enhancing predictions using multi-omics, and c) robust inferences across genetic ancestry background. 

National Registries and Biobanks

Global efforts linking biosamples and health registries have enabled researchers to examine the relationships between genes and diseases without the problem of ascertainment biases. We have international collaborations that allow us to apply our approaches on large-scale population data to understand the path from neural circuits to psychiatric illness​.

Scientific Background

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Dr. Fan received his medical doctor degree at National Yang-Ming University, Taiwan, and completed his residency in adult psychiatry at Taipei City Psychiatric Center, Taiwan. Dr. Fan moved to the United States for formal training in cognitive neuroscience and bioinformatics. He graduated with Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from the University of California San Diego, in 2017. Dr. Fan worked as a bioinformatician in both the biomedical industry and academic setting between 2017 and 2020. He joined the Department of Radiology at the University of California San Diego, as an Assistant Professor in 2021.

In 2022, Dr. Fan decided to join the Laureate Institute for Brain Research to form the Center for Population Neuroscience and Genetics with his longtime colleague, Dr. Wesley K. Thompson. Motivated by his clinical interest in early disease detection and intervention, Dr. Fan has focused his research on using both magnetic resonance imaging and genetic markers for predicting disease risks and identifying potential modulating factors, either endogenous (molecular pathways) or exogenous (environmental factors). He has been a pioneer in translating the works between imaging analyses and genetic analyses, allowing researchers to explore the complexity of phenotypes across high-dimensional datasets. 

Meet Our Team

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Bohan Xu
Data Scientist

Firas Naber
Research Assistant

Ashley Barrows
PNG Project Manager

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Lab Members at the University of California-San Diego
Robert Loughnan, Post-Doctoral Fellow 
Junting Ren, Graduate Student 
Lucy Shao, Graduate Student
Wenjie Cheng, Staff Programmer 

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Selected Publications

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Fan CC, Banks SJ, Thompson WK, Chen CH, McEvoy LK, Tan CH, Kukull W, Bennett DA, Farrer LA, Mayeux R, Schellenberg GD, Andreassen OA, Desikan R, Dale AM. Sex-dependent autosomal effects on clinical progression of Alzheimer's disease. Brain. 2020 Jul 1;143(7):2272-2280.

Zhao W, Palmer CE, Thompson WK, Chaarani B, Garavan HP, Casey BJ, Jernigan TL, Dale AM, Fan CC. Individual Differences in Cognitive Performance Are Better Predicted by Global Rather Than Localized BOLD Activity Patterns Across the Cortex. Cereb Cortex. 2021 Feb 5;31(3):1478-1488.

Fan CC, Loughnan R, Makowski C, Pecheva D, Chen CH, Hagler DJ Jr, Thompson WK, Parker N, van der Meer D, Frei O, Andreassen OA, Dale AM. Multivariate genome-wide association study on tissue-sensitive diffusion metrics highlights pathways that shape the human brain. Nat Commun. 2022 May 3;13(1):2423.

Fan CC, Marshall A, Smolker H, Gonzalez MR, Tapert SF, Barch DM, Sowell E, Dowling GJ, Cardenas-Iniguez C, Ross J, Thompson WK, Herting MM. Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study Linked External Data (LED): Protocol and practices for geocoding and assignment of environmental data. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2021 Dec;52:101030.

FULL LIST OF PUBLICATIONS