Albert Higgins-Chen

Albert Higgins-Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University, with a secondary appointment in Pathology. He leads the Higgins-Chen lab, which focuses on developing aging biomarkers to assess the impact of mental health and treatments on aging. His work integrates computational methods, machine learning, and omics data to study interventions for Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. He earned his MD/PhD from the University of Michigan and AB from Harvard.

• Education:
• PhD, University of Michigan, Cellular and Molecular Biology (2017)
• MD, University of Michigan, Cellular and Molecular Biology (2017)
• AB, Harvard University, Biochemical Sciences (2009)
• Research:
• Develops epigenetic clocks and machine learning tools to measure biological aging
• Investigates interactions between psychiatric disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, depression) and aging biomarkers
• Leads collaborations in geroscience, translational medicine, and clinical trials
• Key Projects:
• Validating aging biomarkers for longevity interventions
• Studying epigenetic mutations in cancer and cardiovascular aging
• Integrating mental health with aging biology through biomarker development

His lab emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches, combining computational pipelines with clinical and experimental data. Recent work includes resolving technical noise in epigenetic clocks and identifying age-invariant genes in mice. Current projects address how psychiatric treatments affect biomarkers of aging and mortality risk.