Xin Jin receives dual awards to study autism risk genes in neurodevelopment
Major grants from the National Institutes of Health and California Institute for Regenerative Medicine will support the development of state-of-the-art genomic tools.
April 20, 2023
LA JOLLA, CA– Neuropsychiatric disorders are a leading concern nationwide, yet the genetic basis of these conditions remains poorly understood. Addressing this challenge is Xin Jin, PhD, a Scripps Research assistant professor of neuroscience, who has this month received both a $3.7 million award from the NIH’s National Human Genome Research Institute and a $1.5 million DISC0 Foundation Award from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
The grants, which will both provide funding over five years, will support Jin’s research identifying how certain risk genes implicated in autism spectrum disorder influence early-stage neurogenesis, the formation of new neurons during brain development. Using sophisticated genetic engineering technology, researchers in Jin’s lab could reveal the biological mechanisms underpinning developmental disabilities, as well as new potential disease-modifying solutions.
“We are very excited to receive support to develop and refine technologies to approach brain disorders, and grateful for our diverse collaborators, including Dr. Ali Torkamani’s group,” says Jin. “The complexity of brain cell type and developmental dynamics require us to push the resolution of our tools in order to better model, and ultimately understand, these conditions.”
Jin’s lab is focused on understanding how diverse genetic risk factors can manifest in different brain disorders. The neurobiological pathways associated with disease risk remain poorly defined, which has resulted in a lack of effective intervention strategies for neuropsychiatric conditions, as well as limited diagnostic tools.
With novel and scalable genetic screening technology, Jin’s team aims to comprehensively evaluate gene sets associated with these conditions and discover, with single-cell resolution, which brain regions and cell types are involved in disease pathology. In creating a high-throughput screening platform that can be applied to brain tissues, Jin hopes to uncover new insights into autism that may be overlooked using existing methodologies.
In addition to these grants, Jin was the recipient of the One Mind Rising Star Award and was named one of MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 in 2022. She also received the G. Harold & Leila Y. Mathers Foundation Award, the Donald E. & Delia B. Baxter Young Investigator Award, the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation Award, and the Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award in Neuroscience. Prior to that, Jin garnered the Early Career Investigator Award from the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR), a Simons Foundation Collaborative Grant, a Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and an Allison Doupe Fellowship from the McKnight Foundation, among other awards and honors.
Jin earned her doctoral degree in Biology at The Rockefeller University. She then was a Junior Fellow in Harvard University’s Society of Fellows before becoming a faculty member at Scripps Research in 2021.
For more information, contact press@scripps.edu