Welcome to willseylab!

We use frogs to dissect psychiatric disorders.

The problem

We have lists of hundreds of high-confidence, large-effect psychiatric disorder risk genes. However, even within one disorder, these genes represent a wide swath of cellular and developmental functions, obscuring how they contribute to risk. Unraveling the underlying biology of these disorders and identifying effective treatments requires a new approach amenable to large-scale genetic analysis in vivo.

The future is frogs

Diploid frogs (Xenopus tropicalis) represent a powerful platform for genetic analysis at scale. We can make thousands of mutant embryos in an afternoon and watch brain development in vivo.

Half-mutant tadpoles

We can make half-mutant tadpoles, divided by the midline, by injecting CRISPR reagents into 1 cell at the 2-cell stage. This provides an internal, within-animal control.

Our expertise

  • Gene Editing

  • Developmental Biology

  • Microscopy

  • Cell Biology

Meet our team

  • Helen Willsey, PhD

    Principal Investigator

  • Delfina González, PhD

    Postdoctoral Scholar

  • Kate McCluskey

    Graduate Student

  • Elina Kostyanovskaya

    Graduate Student

  • Christina Roca

    Graduate Student

  • Angeline Chemel

    Graduate Student

  • Anna Grigsby-Brown

    Graduate Student

  • Juan Arbelaez

    Research Assistant

  • Nolan Wong

    Research Assistant

  • Ethel Bader

    Lab Manager

  • James Schmidt

    Research Assistant

  • Catherine Nguyen

    Research Assistant

  • Ashley Clement

    Administrative Officer

"Our real teacher has been and still is the embryo, who is, incidentally, the only teacher who is always right." Viktor Hamburger

Publications

Parallel in vivo analysis of large-effect autism genes implicates cortical neurogenesis and estrogen in risk and resilience

Neuron, 2021

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The neurodevelopmental disorder risk gene DYRK1A is required for ciliogenesis and control of brain size in Xenopus embryos

Development, 2020

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Modeling Human Genetic Disorders with CRISPR Technologies in Xenopus

CSHL Protocols, 2022

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Whole-Mount RNA In Situ Hybridization and Immunofluorescence of Xenopus Embryos and Tadpoles

CSHL Protocols, 2021

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We’re recruiting! Join our team.