Jason Lerch
Professor of Neuroscience
I am the director of Preclinical Imaging at the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN) at the University of Oxford (and retain my affiliations in Canada as an adjunct scientist at the Mouse Imaging Centre (MICe) of the Hospital for Sick Children and an associate professor in medical biophysics at the University of Toronto).
My primary research interests are:
- parsing autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions
- understanding how sex and gender shape the brain and how that drives sex disparities in multiple mental health conditions
- figuring out the bases of MRI detectable brain plasticity
Underlying these research interests is a keen desire to improve our acquisition, processing, and analysis methods. This relates in particular to how we can combine mechanistic experiments in model species, in particular the mouse, with human patient and population studies.
DPHIL projects
I have regular DPhil opportunities for candidates with a background in neuroscience, engineering, computer science, or physics. Projects will usually be designed collaboratively with the candidate. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss possible projects, including an up-to-date CV.
Key publications
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Clustering autism: using neuroanatomical differences in 26 mouse models to gain insight into the heterogeneity.
Journal article
Ellegood J. et al, (2015), Mol Psychiatry, 20, 118 - 125
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Whole-brain comparison of rodent and human brains using spatial transcriptomics.
Journal article
Beauchamp A. et al, (2022), Elife, 11
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Mouse MRI shows brain areas relatively larger in males emerge before those larger in females.
Journal article
Qiu LR. et al, (2018), Nat Commun, 9
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Examining overlap and homogeneity in ASD, ADHD, and OCD: a data-driven, diagnosis-agnostic approach.
Journal article
Kushki A. et al, (2019), Transl Psychiatry, 9
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Studying neuroanatomy using MRI.
Other
Lerch JP. et al, (2017), Nat Neurosci, 20, 314 - 326
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Maze training in mice induces MRI-detectable brain shape changes specific to the type of learning.
Journal article
Lerch JP. et al, (2011), Neuroimage, 54, 2086 - 2095
Recent publications
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Sex chromosomes and hormones independently influence healthy brain development but act similarly after cranial radiation.
Journal article
Yeung J. et al, (2024), Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 121
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Dataset factors associated with age-related changes in brain structure and function in neurodevelopmental conditions.
Journal article
Vandewouw MM. et al, (2024), Hum Brain Mapp, 45
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Brain-charting autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder reveals distinct and overlapping neurobiology.
Journal article
Bedford SA. et al, (2024), Biol Psychiatry
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The universe is asymmetric, the mouse brain too.
Journal article
Rivera-Olvera A. et al, (2024), Mol Psychiatry
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Identifying novel data-driven subgroups in congenital heart disease using multi-modal measures of brain structure.
Journal article
Vandewouw MM. et al, (2024), Neuroimage