Brian O’Roak uses genomic approaches to unlock the genetic basis of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and intellectual disability.
Brian O’Roak
Associate professor of molecular and medical genetics
Oregon Health and Science University
From this contributor
How I learned to stop worrying and love preprints
Preprints are gaining traction in biology, but some researchers have lingering concerns. Should they?
Burning debate: What’s the best way to nab real autism genes?
How to best use a large volume of data to discover new genetic risk factors for autism is a matter of intense debate, particularly in light of historical challenges.
Burning debate: What’s the best way to nab real autism genes?
By
Brian O’Roak
27 June 2017 | 9 min read
Explore more from The Transmitter
Video catches microglia in the act of synaptic pruning
Live cell imaging reveals the clearest picture yet of this elusive process. Whether it’s something these cells do regularly remains up for debate.
Video catches microglia in the act of synaptic pruning
Live cell imaging reveals the clearest picture yet of this elusive process. Whether it’s something these cells do regularly remains up for debate.
By
RJ Mackenzie
26 March 2025 | 0 min watch
Gabriele Scheler reflects on the interplay between language, thought and AI
She discusses how verbal thought shapes cognition, why inner speech is foundational to human intelligence and what current artificial-intelligence models get wrong about language.
Gabriele Scheler reflects on the interplay between language, thought and AI
She discusses how verbal thought shapes cognition, why inner speech is foundational to human intelligence and what current artificial-intelligence models get wrong about language.
By
Paul Middlebrooks
26 March 2025 | 96 min listen
Accepting “the bitter lesson” and embracing the brain’s complexity
To gain insight into complex neural data, we must move toward a data-driven regime, training large models on vast amounts of information. We asked nine experts on computational neuroscience and neural data analysis to weigh in.
Accepting “the bitter lesson” and embracing the brain’s complexity
To gain insight into complex neural data, we must move toward a data-driven regime, training large models on vast amounts of information. We asked nine experts on computational neuroscience and neural data analysis to weigh in.
By
Eva Dyer, Blake Richards
26 March 2025 | 8 min read