Margaret Daniele Fallin

Margaret Daniele Fallin, PhD is an Adjunct Full Professor at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she serves as Chair of the Department of Mental Health and Director of the Wendy Klag Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities. She is actively affiliated with the Center for Global Health and leads multiple major autism research initiatives including the Maryland site of the SEED study and the EARLI study.

Dr. Fallin's research focuses on how environments, behaviors, genetic variation, and epigenetic variation contribute to risk for psychiatric diseases, with particular emphasis on autism, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Her work bridges epidemiology and statistical genetics, developing methods for genetic epidemiology studies while investigating neuropsychiatric disorders. She has led GWAS and EWAS projects for autism based on SEED and EARLI samples and co-led NIH Roadmap-funded projects on epigenetic epidemiology.

Her recent publications demonstrate continued active research in autism epidemiology, environmental exposures during pregnancy, and multigenerational family health patterns. The research spans environmental health, epigenetics, and developmental disorders, with strong emphasis on longitudinal cohort studies and methodological approaches to understanding complex disease etiology.

Dr. Fallin has received significant recognition for her work, with over 300 research outputs spanning more than two decades. Her research fingerprint shows strong concentrations in DNA Methylation (100%), Autism Spectrum Disorder (66%), Genetics (59%), Single-Nucleotide Polymorphism (53%), and Epigenetics (46%).

As principal investigator, she leads multiple major projects including the Arsenic, Epigenetics and Incident Cardiovascular Disease in American Indian study, a Prospective Birth Cohort Study on Pre- and Peri-natal Determinants of Autism Spectrum Disorders, and the GEMMA (Genome, Environment, Microbiome & Metabolome in Autism) study. Her work has established important connections between environmental exposures, epigenetic mechanisms, and neurodevelopmental outcomes.