Sarah Ferri

Sarah Ferri, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics - Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the University of Iowa. She works within the Iowa Neuroscience Institute, focusing on mechanisms of social deficits and sex bias in neurodevelopmental disorders.

• Education: BA, MA, PhD in Psychology from University of Pennsylvania (with Brandeis University for BA)

Research Interests

• Investigating social behavior and fear memory deficits in genetic mouse models
• Neural circuits underlying autism spectrum disorder
• Sex differences in neurodevelopmental disorders
• Synaptic plasticity and hormonal influences on brain development

Publication Trends

• Recent work focuses on how neonatal testosterone exposure causes male-specific behavioral deficits
• Studies on autism-associated genes like Pcdh10 and Contactin-Associated Protein-Like 2
• Long-standing interest in amygdala function and synaptic regulation
• Combines molecular neuroscience with behavioral phenotyping
• Uses mouse models to study neurodevelopmental disorders
• Research spans synaptic biology to systems-level neural circuits