headshot of Jacob Vorstman

Jacob Vorstman

Professor
The Hospital for Sick Children

Jacob Vorstman is associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and director of the Autism Research Unit at the Hospital for Sick Children in Canada. Initially, his research focused on the psychiatric and genetic aspects of the 22q11.2 deletion. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 2008, he broadened the scope from 22q11.2 deletion syndrome to the study of genotype-phenotype relations in neurodevelopmental conditions — in particular, autism, intellectual disability and schizophrenia. His ambition is to further insights into the genetic architecture underlying these conditions as well as to improve methods to measure the associated phenotypes.

From this contributor

Explore more from The Transmitter

Research image visualizing genetic variation.

Long-read sequencing unearths overlooked autism-linked variants

Strips that are thousands of base pairs in length offer better resolution of structural variants and tandem repeats, according to two independent preprints.

By Natalia Mesa
18 September 2025 | 6 min read
Illustration of human figures holding brightly colored connected dots.

This paper changed my life: Dan Goodman on a paper that reignited the field of spiking neural networks

Friedemann Zenke’s 2019 paper, and its related coding tutorial SpyTorch, made it possible to apply modern machine learning to spiking neural networks. The innovation reinvigorated the field.

By Dan Goodman
17 September 2025 | 5 min read
Research image of different types of microglia in mice.

Autism and anxiety insights; and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 15 September.

By Jill Adams
16 September 2025 | 2 min read

privacy consent banner

Privacy Preference

We use cookies to provide you with the best online experience. By clicking “Accept All,” you help us understand how our site is used and enhance its performance. You can change your choice at any time. To learn more, please visit our Privacy Policy.