Contact information
Research groups
Emilie Wigdor
PhD
Postdoctoral Research Scientist
My research focuses on the genetics and functional genomics of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. In the Sanders Group, my main projects are BrainVar and BrainNet. These studies use whole genome sequencing and single-cell multi-omic approaches to analyze gene expression across the span of human cerebral cortical development, and to dissect the autism transcriptome.
Prior to joining the Sanders Group at the IDRM and Department of Paediatrics, I did my PhD in genomics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge. There, I investigated the role of common variation and spliceosome variants in rare disorders, with a focus on undiagnosed neurodevelopment disorders.
Before my PhD, I trained as an associate computational biologist at the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute, where I worked on the genetic epidemiology of autism, particularly on sex-bias.
I completed my undergraduate in 2015 in Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology at Harvard University.
Key publications
The female protective effect against autism spectrum disorder
Journal article
Wigdor EM. et al, (2022), Cell Genomics, 2, 100134 - 100134
Autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have a similar burden of rare protein-truncating variants.
Journal article
Satterstrom FK. et al, (2019), Nat Neurosci, 22, 1961 - 1965
Paternal-age-related de novo mutations and risk for five disorders.
Journal article
Taylor JL. et al, (2019), Nat Commun, 10
Polygenic transmission disequilibrium confirms that common and rare variation act additively to create risk for autism spectrum disorders.
Journal article
Weiner DJ. et al, (2017), Nat Genet, 49, 978 - 985
Recent publications
Genome-wide association meta-analysis of age at onset of walking in over 70,000 infants of European ancestry.
Journal article
Gui A. et al, (2025), Nat Hum Behav, 9, 1470 - 1487
Examining the role of common variants in rare neurodevelopmental conditions.
Journal article
Huang QQ. et al, (2024), Nature, 636, 404 - 411
Substantial role of rare inherited variation in individuals with developmental disorders
Preprint
Samocha KE. et al, (2024)
Dissecting the contribution of common variants to risk of rare neurodevelopmental conditions
Preprint
Huang QQ. et al, (2024)