Synapse development, synapse function, synaptopathies, CRISPR, epigenetic control of brain development
BS, Neuroscience, Temple University
PhD, Neuroscience, Thomas Jefferson University
Philly area
Playing guitar, discovering new music, reading sci-fi novels, making friends with any dogs in the vicinity, being in nature
Neurotrauma, neuroplasticity, spinal cord circuitry, gene therapies
BS, Kinesiology, Indiana University
MS, Kinesiology, Indiana University
PhD, Translational Neurosciences, University of Louisville
Valparaiso, Indiana
Tennis, hiking, American whiskey/bourbon
Neurobiology of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders, (epi-)genome engineering, next generation sequencing
BA, Phonetics and Speech Processing, Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) Munich, Germany
MSc, Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
PhD, Neuroscience, King’s College London, UK
Munich, Germany & London, UK
Yoga, travelling, exploring different cuisines from all over the world, having a beer with friends
The Heller Lab research program is focused on elucidating the causal mechanisms by which epigenetic reprogramming contributes to neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disease. The Heller lab applies targeted epigenetic editing to determine the direct causal relevance of histone modifications to transcription, alternative splicing, and behavior. This approach will be applied to SynGAP1, to define gene regulatory mechanisms and contribute to novel therapeutic approaches. Dr. Heller is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. She received her PhD from The Rockefeller University and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Heller is the recipient of a 2017 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, a 2020 SynGAP Research Fund Grant, and a 2023 Orphan Disease Center Million Dollar Bike Ride Award from the Syngap Research Fund.