Michael Gandal

Michael Gandal, MD, is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Genetics, and Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, affiliated with Penn Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. His research focuses on genomic and transcriptomic profiling of the human brain across development to elucidate gene and isoform-level regulatory mechanisms linked to neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.

• Lifespan Brain Institute, Penn Medicine
• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

His lab conducts genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of EHR-based developmental phenotypes and develops tools for complex trait mapping. Key research areas include psychiatric genetics, neurogenomics, and single-cell multi-omic analysis.

Recent work explores the genetic architecture of psychiatric disorders, isoform-level transcriptome dysregulation in neuropsychiatric conditions, and cross-ancestry genomic atlases. His studies integrate neuroimaging phenotypes, suicide attempt genetics, and neuroinflammatory mechanisms in autism.

The Gandal Lab has published extensively on topics such as cannabis use disorder, cortical organization, and therapeutic targets for Fragile X syndrome, emphasizing diverse ancestral populations and functional genomics.