Dr. Jonathan Sebat

Dr. Sebat leads an interdisciplinary team in the clinical and genomic analysis of patient cohorts at UCSD and Rady Children’s Hospital. He is a Professor at the University of California San Diego with appointments in the departments of Psychiatry and Cellular & Molecular Medicine.

Dr. Sebat is a leader in the field of psychiatric genetics and an expert in the genomic analysis of disease by Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS). His research has made substantial contributions to our current knowledge of the contribution of rare and de novo genetic variants to risk for psychiatric disorders. His early research on patterns of structural genetic variation (SV) in the human genome led to the initial discovery of the widespread abundance of SV in the human genome. Application of SV detection methods to psychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia has served to elucidate the role of rare SVs in these disorders. Recent genome sequencing studies in multiple cohorts including the Simons Simplex Collection have made significant progress in further elucidating the genetic basis of ASD, in particular the contribution of inherited SVs in non-coding regions of the genome.