Dr. Buxbaum is the Director of the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment and his laboratory works closely with all of the other laboratories and focus groups within the Center. The Buxbaum lab studies human psychiatric and neurological diseases using methods of epidemiology, genetics, genomics, molecular and cell biology, and animal models. Currently, we are focusing primarily on autism spectrum disorder (ASD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and associated neuropsychiatric disorders.
The Seaver Center is a fully integrated translational research center dedicated to discovering the biological causes of autism and comorbid conditions and developing breakthrough treatments. The Center includes teams focused on (i) epidemiology, (ii) preclinical research, (iii) clinical research, and (iv) drug discovery and development, all supported by an (v) administrative team. There are several unifying themes across the Center, all of which include members of the Buxbaum lab. These include a focus on 4 rare genetic disorders with very high risk for autism, looking at the disorders from epidemiological, preclinical, clinical and drug discovery perspectives, and the integration of large epidemiological cohorts into gene discovery and genotype-phenotype correlations.