Michael S Breen, PhD

Dr. Michael S Breen is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Genetics and Genomic Sciences, and a faculty member of the Icahn Genomics Institute, the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment, the Friedman Brain Insitute, and the Mindich Child Health and Development Institute.

Research in the Breen Laboratory integrates functional genomics, computational biology, and cellular neuroscience to investigate adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) RNA editing, with research spanning three central areas: 1) identification and characterization of highly regulated A-to-I sites implicated in brain development and neurodegeneration through large-scale RNA-seq and snRNA-seq of brain tissues and neuronal cell systems; 2) assessment of these RNA editing sites’ impact on protein function and cellular phenotypes; and 3) development of site-directed RNA editing approaches aimed at therapeutic correction of disease-related RNA editing sites and pathogenic point mutations at the mRNA level. Recently, with internal pilot grant support, we have begun translating these in silico and in vitro models into in vivo animal studies.

RESEARCH TOPICS: adenosine-to-inosine editing, brain development, autism spectrum disorder and syndromic subtypes, schizophrenia, neurodegeneration, immunogenetics of developmental disorders, human genetics, gene and protein expression, mRNA secondary structure predictions, alternative splicing, quantitative trait loci, RNA therapeutics.

GENOMIC TECHNOLOGIES AND CELLULAR METHODS: WGS/WES, DNAm arrays, transcriptomics (single-cell RNA-seq, RNA-seq, long read isoform-sequencing), mass spectrometry proteomics and metabolomics, multi ‘omic’ computational models and tools, CRISPRi, fluorescence activated cell and nuclei sorting, cytometry time of flight, antisense oligonucleotides, hiPSC-derived neurons and neuronal model systems.

Learn about some of our work on A-to-I editing in the brain (here) and in autism and rare monogenic forms (here).