Celia is a Research Scientist I with the Robinson lab, where she is working on common and rare variant additivity in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The inheritance of common variants associated with ASD from unaffected parents to children affected with ASD is highly complex and can contribute to the heterogeneity of the disorder. By understanding the patterns of transmission in subgroups of individuals with ASD, we can better classify which groups of ASD cases are more etiologically similar and in doing so improve downstream analysis designs and treatment of this disease. Celia obtained her PhD in Human Genetics at the University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2015. Thereafter, she completed a 3-year postdoc at the University of Cape Town. Celia is also a research fellow in the Global Initiative for Neuropsychiatric Genetic Education in Research.
Celia van der Merwe
