By: Charlotte Chun, Postdoctoral Fellow

The Ellman Lab, led by Dr. Lauren Ellman, aims to identify biological and environmental factors involved in the development of psychosis and related disorders.

Symptoms that we study include experiences such as strange ideas, suspiciousness, or seeing and hearing things that are not there. These can be frightening, can interfere with daily functioning, and put people at greater risk for developing a severe psychotic disorder. We aim to improve the identification of risk factors for psychosis and other forms of mental illness, with the goal of informing prevention and intervention strategies. Ultimately, we want to promote better long-term outcomes for youth in our community. 

Recent publications from our lab have revealed a variety of factors associated with subthreshold psychotic symptoms, such as structural changes in the brain, experiences of racial discrimination, poor sleep quality, or difficulty looking forward to pleasurable events. One major project we have ongoing is the longitudinal assessment of a community sample of adolescents and young adults. Our goals are to identify people at risk for psychosis and other disorders before things get more serious, provide them with appropriate mental health referrals, and follow up with them to see how they are doing over time.

Our lab is also interested in how factors before, during, and after birth influence risk for psychotic and depressive disorders and predict long-term clinical, neural, cognitive, social, and emotional outcomes. This line of research is helping us understand connections between maternal stress and inflammation during pregnancy and symptoms of depression and psychosis in offspring.

Our undergraduate research assistants are an important part of our lab and are involved in many key aspects of our research, including recruiting and working directly with participants, managing and analyzing data, and presenting findings at conferences and university events. Research assistants also have the opportunity to participate in our lab meetings and to complete an original research project of their own design. We are always looking for motivated research assistants to support our research and become an active part of our lab! Check out our lab website for more information.