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Home: Welcome

UNDERSTANDING MECHANISMS OF RISK AND RESILIENCE THROUGHOUT BRAIN & BEHAVIOR DEVELOPMENT

Home: Our Story

CHALLENGES THAT DRIVE US

  • To understand why some youths who grow up with developmental stress become suicidal, while others do not (resilient).

  • To timely identify those at risk for serious psychopathology and divert the developmental trajectory from risk to resilience.

QUESTIONS WE ASK

  • What are the mechanisms that drive variability in the development of brain and behavior? 

  • How do environmental (E) exposures (e.g., trauma, neighborhood environment) interact among themselves (E X E), and with biological (e.g., genetic (G)) factors (G X E), to shape developmental trajectories of youth?

OUR VISION

  • Promote resilience and prevent suicide and serious psychiatric outcomes in youths.

OUR MISSION

  • Conduct impactful translational science aimed at reducing youth mental health burden.

Home: About

OUR RESEARCH

In the BarziLab, we use multiple methods to understand variability in the development of brain and behavior.

5 pillars of the research_v2.png

We study how a myriad of environmental exposures (such as trauma and socioeconomic factors) dynamically interact among themselves, and with biological factors (such as genetic and epigenetic) to shape the development of brain and behavior.

Home: Our Values

OUR VALUES

We collect and analyze large human datasets.

We do collaborative interdisciplinary science.

We work with basic scientists to inform mechanistic gaps that can only be investigated in animal models.

Home: Recent Publications

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Smartphone acquisition and use at age 13 years and health outcomes at age 14 years

2026

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JAMA Pediatrics

Smartphone ownership, age of smartphone acquisition, and health outcomes in early adolescence

2025

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Pediatrics

Prediction of adolescent suicide attempt by integrating clinical, neurocognitive and geocoded neighborhood environment data

2025

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Schizophrenia Bulletin

Probing the digital exposome: Associations of social media use patterns with youth mental health

2024

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NPP—Digital Psychiatry and Neuroscience

Classification of suicide attempt risk using environmental and lifestyle factors in 3 large youth cohorts

2024

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JAMA Psychiatry

A general exposome factor explains individual differences in functional brain network topography and cognition in youth

2024

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Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Exposomic and polygenic contributions to allostatic load in early adolescence

2024

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Nature Mental Health

The ethics of risk prediction for psychosis and suicide attempt in youth mental health

2023

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The Journal of Pediatrics

Association between state-level access to reproductive care and suicide rates among women of reproductive age in the United States

2023

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JAMA Psychiatry

Association between racial/ethnic discrimination and pubertal development in early adolescence

2022

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Psychoneuroendocrinology

Exposome and trans-syndromal developmental trajectories toward psychosis

2022

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Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science

Modeling environment through a general exposome factor in two independent adolescent cohorts

2022

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Exposome

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Lifespan Brain Institute (LiBI)

University of Pennsylvania

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

 

 

©2020 by BARZILAB. Designed by Moti Barzilay

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