I am studying the interaction between synaptic genes and clock genes in autism susceptibility. This work relies on the hypothesis that sleep disorders observed in patients could be involved in a synaptic homeostasis abnormality in autism. The objective of my project is to better understand these mechanisms by establishing the interaction models between synaptic genes and clock genes.
Therefore, I’m working on the identification of new genes associated with autism. To do so, I’m looking for rare variants (high penetrance) and frequent variants (risk factors) present in patients, using genotyping and sequencing data.
I’m particularly interested in circadian rhythms and biochemical alterations observed in patients with autism and I try to explain the molecular mechanisms of these alterations using genetic analysis, such as association studies and pathway analysis.
Finally, I’m working on the relation between synaptic genes or clock genes and clinical phenotype or biochemistry data, especially of the serotonin-melatonin pathway.