John Stead

Dr. John Stead is an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Chair in the Department of Neuroscience at Carleton University. He holds a PhD in Genetics from the University of Leicester (UK) and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Leicester and the Mental Health Institute, University of Michigan. His research focuses on applying bioinformatics tools to study genomic responses to environmental toxins, with earlier work encompassing diabetes genetics and depression genomics in humans. He teaches courses in data analysis for neuroscience.

Research Interests:

• Genetic and genomic studies of mental health disorders
• Environmental toxin impacts on gene expression
• Minisatellite instability mechanisms
• Transcriptomic analysis methodologies

Publications: Over 25 peer-reviewed articles spanning genetics, genomics, and neurobiology, including influential work on fibroblast growth factor dysregulation in depression (2004) and insulin minisatellite variation (2000). Recent studies investigate cisplatin effects on insulin secretion (2025) and transcriptional responses to plant metabolites (2024).