Matt Huentelman, Ph.D.

Dr. Huentelman's research interests center around the investigation of the “-omics” (genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics) of neurological traits and disease. His laboratory’s overarching goal is to leverage findings in these disciplines to better understand, diagnose, and treat human diseases of the nervous system.

Dr. Huentelman joined TGen in July of 2004 after completing his doctoral work at the University of Florida’s Department of Physiology and Functional Genomics at the McKnight Brain Institute where he investigated the application of gene therapy in the study and prevention of hypertension. His undergraduate degree is in Biochemistry from Ohio University’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Clippinger Laboratories. Dr. Huentelman’s career includes visiting researcher stints in Moscow, Russia at the MV Lomonosov Moscow State University “Biology Faculty” and in the United Kingdom within the University of Bristol’s Department of Physiology.

Alzheimer’s Disease | The Huentelman lab is interested in helping to identify an individual’s personal risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease as early as possible in life. This ability will become increasingly important as newer “prevention” style therapeutics are tested and approved for use.

Aging | Just like other physiological developmental stages our individual response to the process of aging differs dramatically from person to person. Importantly the natural process of aging takes place over many decades and therefore our lifestyle choices and demographic factors may play a major role in how each one of us ages. The Huentelman lab is using genomics and transcriptomics to better understand why some individuals exhibit better cognitive aging when compared to others. The hope is that through the better understanding of these differences we may someday be able to develop therapeutics that could enable a larger portion of the population to exhibit better cognitive aging.

Cognition | Individual differences in brain performance continue to be a central focus in neuroscience research. Dr. Huentelman’s group explores the demographic and genetic factors influencing these differences using innovative methods, including their web-based platform MindCrowd.org and mobile laboratory approaches. The ultimate goal of this research is to apply these insights to enhance brain performance across diverse populations, with the hope of helping more individuals avoid cognitive disorders or reduce their severity.

Rare Disease | The genetic dissection of rare human disease is uniquely powered by our ability to sequence the entire human genome and interpret the results with increasing clarity. The Huentelman laboratory utilizes this approach to tackle rare diseases in children - via TGen’s Center for Rare Childhood Disorders - as well as in adults. The greatest successes in this area come from the study of the entire nuclear family, therefore, Dr. Huentelman’s group typically focuses on the study of diseases that strike at a time in life when the affected patient and parent’s DNA can be studied together.

MindCrowd Blog | Be sure to check out the MindCrowd blog for the latest in healthy brain aging research.