Biography

The Luo laboratory is dedicated to understand the genetic and pathophysiological mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disorders, focusing on schizophrenia (SZ) and major depressive disorder (MDD). As two of the most common mental diseases, SZ and MDD have a high mortality and significant long-term morbidity and are one of the leading causes of disability and death. Though SZ and MDD are high prevalent and are major threats to global health, currently there are no proven treatment options that can cure these diseases completely. Our work leverages the fields of genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, functional genomics, as well as basic neuroscience and neurobiology, to obtain a systems level understanding of SZ and MDD. We have pioneered the application of integrative omics and functional genomics in psychiatric genetics. Our ultimate goal is to pinpoint the causal variants and genes for SZ and MDD and to develop new therapeutics for these two devastating disorders. Our work were recommended by F1000 for three times. I’m a Reviewer for depression project of MRC and Associated editor of BMC Psychiatry. Dr. Luo has published more than 70 peer-reviewed research articles and commentaries on SCI-indexed journals, including Nature Human Behaviour (2024a, 2024b, 2024c), Molecular Psychiatry, The American Journal of Psychiatry, Genome Medicine, Advanced Science, Nature Communications, JAMA Psychiatry and Biological Psychiatry.