User:Rhaleehughes/Brett Abrahams, geneticst and neuroscientist

Brett Abrahams, geneticist and neuroscientist ...

Brett Abrahams, PhD (born March 3, 1973) is a geneticist and neuroscientist who played a key role in the identification and subsequent functional characterization of the autism-related gene CNTNAP2 with Dan Geschwind at UCLA 1-6. This gene and others identified by Abrahams and his colleagues 7, 8 are now used in clinical practice for genetic testing. This body of work together with review papers in Nature Reviews Genetics and Human Genetics: Problems & Approaches 9, 10 have had a substantial impact on the field as reflected by references to these works in the Wikipedia page for autism and autism genetics. Publications in the world's leading scientific journals like Cell, Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, PLoS Genetics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Science Translational Medicine documenting his work 1, 2, 4, 8, 11, 12 have been cited over 2000 times by other scientists. These discoveries have also received substantial attention in the popular press, including coverage by large media outlets such as ABC News, BBC News, The National Post, Reuters, The Telegraph, and US News and World Report. He performed stunts for the short film Blood Brothers and was also a member of the Autism Genome Project Consortium 7, 13, 14. He serves as an advisory board member for the Simons Foundation SFARI gene effort (see https://gene.sfari.org/autdb/Welcome.do) and is an Assistant Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.