Paola Giusti-Rodriguez

Paola Giusti-Rodriguez, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Department: MD-PSYCHIATRY
Business Phone: (352) 294-4925
Business Email: giustirodriguezp@ufl.edu

About Paola Giusti-Rodriguez

Dr. Paola Giusti-Rodriguez grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she earned a BS in Biology at the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras. She completed her PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology at Harvard University, where her doctorate research focused on studying the molecular basis of neurodegeneration.

Dr. Giusti-Rodriguez carried out her postdoctoral research with Dr. Patrick Sullivan at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she employed the multi-parental Collaborative Cross mouse population to better understand antipsychotic side effects. Her work lies at the intersection between neuroscience and functional genomics, and she aims to integrate the tools and techniques of these fields to shed light on the genetics of neuropsychiatric disorders.

In 2016, she was awarded a K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award by the National Institute of Mental Health for her work focused on functional genomics of psychiatric disorders. Dr. Giusti-Rodriguez is co-founder of the Latin American Genomics Consortium, which seeks to increase the representation of research participants from Latinx admixed ancestry in genetic studies on psychiatric disorders.

Dr. Giusti-Rodriguez works in the Adult Research Division and conducts research in genetic psychiatric illnesses, with interest in human-based studies of neurodevelopmental disorders (including ASD and schizophrenia), at the UF Center for OCD, Anxiety and Related Disorders (COARD). In addition, she serves as an important academic teacher and mentor for medical students, interns, training residents and promoting the research and educational mission of the McKnight Brain Institute (MBI) for the Department of Psychiatry.

Accomplishments

ASHG Human Genetics Scholar
2019 · American Society of Human Genetics
MINDS Class of 2017
2017 · Mentoring Institute for Neuroscience Diversity Scholars (MINDS)
North Coast Conference on Precision Medicine Travel Award
2017 · North Coast Conference on Precision Medicine

Teaching Profile

Courses Taught
2023-2024
GMS6029 Brain Journal Club

Research Profile

Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)

0000-0002-1921-1305

Publications

2023
Importance of including individuals of Latin American ancestry in genetic studies of feeding and eating disorders
Revista Puertorriqueña de Psicologia. 34(2):262-283 [DOI] 10.55611/reps.3402.10.
2023
Latin American Trans-ancestry INitiative for OCD genomics (LATINO): Study Protocol.
medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences. [DOI] 10.1101/2023.02.23.23286373. [PMID] 37131804.
2023
Latin American Trans‐ancestry INitiative for OCD genomics (LATINO): Study protocol
American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics. [DOI] 10.1002/ajmg.b.32962.
2023
Rare tandem repeat expansions associate with genes involved in synaptic and neuronal signaling functions in schizophrenia.
Molecular psychiatry. 28(1):475-482 [DOI] 10.1038/s41380-022-01857-4. [PMID] 36380236.
2022
Author Correction: Increased burden of ultra-rare structural variants localizing to boundaries of topologically associated domains in schizophrenia
Nature Communications. 13(1) [DOI] 10.1038/s41467-021-27826-z. [PMID] 34987162.
2022
Cross-ancestry genomic research: time to close the gap.
Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. 47(10):1737-1738 [DOI] 10.1038/s41386-022-01365-7. [PMID] 35739257.
2022
Gene expression changes following chronic antipsychotic exposure in single cells from mouse striatum
Molecular Psychiatry. 27(6):2803-2812 [DOI] 10.1038/s41380-022-01509-7.
2022
THUNDER: A reference-free deconvolution method to infer cell type proportions from bulk Hi-C data
PLOS Genetics. 18(3) [DOI] 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010102. [PMID] 35259165.
2021
Bayesian modeling of skewed X inactivation in genetically diverse mice identifies a novel Xce allele associated with copy number changes
Genetics. 218(1) [DOI] 10.1093/genetics/iyab034. [PMID] 33693696.
2020
Antipsychotic Behavioral Phenotypes in the Mouse Collaborative Cross Recombinant Inbred Inter-Crosses (RIX).
G3 (Bethesda, Md.). 10(9):3165-3177 [DOI] 10.1534/g3.120.400975. [PMID] 32694196.
2020
Correction: Common-variant associations with fragile X syndrome.
Molecular psychiatry. 25(12) [DOI] 10.1038/s41380-019-0526-x. [PMID] 31548576.
2020
Increased burden of ultra-rare structural variants localizing to boundaries of topologically associated domains in schizophrenia
Nature Communications. 11(1) [DOI] 10.1038/s41467-020-15707-w. [PMID] 32296054.
2020
Robust Hi-C Maps of Enhancer-Promoter Interactions Reveal the Function of Non-coding Genome in Neural Development and Diseases.
Molecular cell. 79(3):521-534.e15 [DOI] 10.1016/j.molcel.2020.06.007. [PMID] 32592681.
2019
Common-variant associations with fragile X syndrome.
Molecular psychiatry. 24(3):338-344 [DOI] 10.1038/s41380-018-0290-3. [PMID] 30531935.
2019
Non-coding variability at the APOE locus contributes to the Alzheimer’s risk
Nature Communications. 10(1) [DOI] 10.1038/s41467-019-10945-z. [PMID] 31346172.
2018
Comparative genomic evidence for the involvement of schizophrenia risk genes in antipsychotic effects.
Molecular psychiatry. 23(3):708-712 [DOI] 10.1038/mp.2017.111. [PMID] 28555076.
2018
Evaluation of chromatin accessibility in prefrontal cortex of individuals with schizophrenia
Nature Communications. 9(1) [DOI] 10.1038/s41467-018-05379-y. [PMID] 30087329.
2018
Genetic identification of brain cell types underlying schizophrenia
Nature Genetics. 50(6):825-833 [DOI] 10.1038/s41588-018-0129-5. [PMID] 29785013.
2015
The Mouse Universal Genotyping Array: From Substrains to Subspecies.
G3 (Bethesda, Md.). 6(2):263-79 [DOI] 10.1534/g3.115.022087. [PMID] 26684931.
2014
A meta-analysis of gene expression quantitative trait loci in brain.
Translational psychiatry. 4(10) [DOI] 10.1038/tp.2014.96. [PMID] 25290266.

Grants

Sep 2021 ACTIVE
1/2 Trans-ancestry genomic analysis of obsessive compulsive disorder
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL via NATL INST OF HLTH NIMH
Aug 2021 ACTIVE
Beyond GWAS: High throughput functional Genomics & Epigenome Editing to Elucidate the Effects of Genetic Associations for Schizophrenia
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: DUKE UNIVERSITY via NATL INST OF HLTH NIMH

Education

Ph.D. Cell and Developmental Biology
2011 · Harvard University
B.S. Biology
2003 · University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras

Contact Details

Phones:
Business:
(352) 294-4925
Emails:
Addresses:
Business Mailing:
1149 Newel Dr.
GAINESVILLE FL 32611
Business Street:
1149 Newel Dr.
GAINESVILLE FL 32611