Lisa Stubbs, PhD
Senior Investigator
Lab Focus
Gene regulatory networks
Genetics of brain development
Genetics of behavior
Overview
The Stubbs Lab studies the genetics of brain development, and how differences in brain development translate into individual behaviors and susceptibility/resilience to disease. This lab focuses on genes encoding regulatory factors—transcription factors and key signaling molecules—that sit atop gene networks that are activated with precise timing and sequence to build and maintain a fully functioning brain.
Because these higher-level regulatory factors control cascades of downstream genes, mutations and variants in these factors can have dramatic effects on brain structure and function, with critical impact on emotional, social, and intellectual capabilities. These variants contribute significantly to the diversity of healthy individuals, but also can define frank susceptibilities to disease.
The Stubbs Lab is focused on identifying critical genetic factors and their interacting partners, with a special focus brain on late gestation and postnatal development when brain regions that determine intellectual capabilities, social interaction, and emotions begin to mature. This team is focused on understanding the genetic and molecular mechanisms of gene regulation and regulatory factor interactions, using mouse genetics together with brain pathology and genomics tools to investigate these processes within specific populations of brain cells as they differentiate and function over the lifespan.
“Our lab’s strength is our ability to pull genetics, genomics, molecular biology, behavioral studies and developmental pathology together to investigate the genetics of brain development and behavior, focusing on how our uniquely structured brains determine resilience or susceptibility to disease. Our goal is to uncover novel molecular and cellular mechanisms through which genetics is translated into a unique spectrum of behaviors, the first steps toward understanding and treating complex neurological disorders and disease.”
Lisa Stubbs, PhD
Senior Investigator and Interim Chief Scientific Officer
Lab Members
Xue Geng, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Amber LeBlanc
Research Technician
Eugene Lin, PhD
Staff Scientist
Alyssa Noren
Research Assistant
Jaai Pandit
Senior Research Technician
Kian Patton
Research Technician
Christopher Seward, PhD
Staff Scientist
Biography
Lisa Stubbs, PhD
Lisa Stubbs, PhD, is a Senior Investigator and Interim Co-Chief Scientific Officer at PNRI, leading her lab’s research on comparative genomics, the role of gene-regulatory mechanisms in neurological development and disease, and mouse models for human developmental disorders. She earned her PhD in Biology with a focus in molecular genetics from the University of California, San Diego, and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the California Institute of Technology and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. Among her prestigious appointments, she spent eight years as the Director of the Genome Biology Division, Biosciences Directorate, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Currently, Dr. Stubbs is an Associate Editor of the scientific journal, PLoS Genetics, in addition to being an affiliate member of the Gene Networks in Neural and Developmental Plasticity Theme, at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois, and a Graduate Faculty member in the same institution’s department of Cell and Developmental Biology. Since 2021, Dr. Stubbs has co-led the Decoding Stress Study at PNRI, along with David Galas, PhD, to investigate how genetic factors influence the development of or resistance to stress-related illnesses.
Learn More About the Stubbs Lab
Research Projects
STUBBS
The Galas Project
PNRI’s Galas Project focuses on understanding the interplay between stress and genetics to affect pregnancy outcomes, particularly among underrepresented women. This project will develop new diagnostics, treatments, and prevention to improve health and reduce these health disparities and their social and economic impacts.
GALAS & STUBBS
Tcf7l2 at the nexus of social stress, metabolic disorders and neuropsychiatric disease
TCF7L2, encoding a transcription factor of the LEF/TCF family that actuates the canonical WNT signaling pathway, is best known for its extraordinarily high levels of association with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and related metabolic disorders in the human population.
STUBBS
Mechanism of AUTS2-linked neurodevelopmental disorders
It is becoming increasingly clear that neurodevelopmental disorders with distinct clinical presentations nonetheless share common genetic mechanisms, and an increasing number of genes are now linked to multiple forms of neurological disease.
Publications
Cross‐species systems analysis of evolutionary toolkits of neurogenomic response to social challenge
Lisa Stubbs, PhD
Awards & Honors
1988 – 1990
Visiting Fellowship
Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, UK
1995 – 1997
Member
U.S. Dept. of Energy Human Genome Program Coordinating Committee
1999 – 2006
Member
U.S. Department of Energy. Biology and Environmental Research Advisory Committee (BERAC)
1999 – 2003
Member
National Institutes of Health Human Genome Study Section
2013 – 2014
Chair, grant review panel for NHGRI RFA, “Undiagnosed Diseases Gene Function”
2016
NIH Director’s committee for final review of Young Innovator Awards
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
2008 – 2011
Chair, Seminar Committee
Dept. of Cell and Developmental Biology (CDB)
2012 – 2020
Chair
CDB Graduate education and Fellowship committee
2012 – 2016
Chair
CDB Ph.D. Preliminary Exam committee
2014 – 2014
Chair
LAS Committee for 5-year review of Head of Animal Biology
2018 – 2019
Chair
MCB faculty recruitment committee, Brain Plasticity Search
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