Kimberly Huber, Ph.D.

Dr. Kimberly Huber focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of synapse and neural circuit development and plasticity, as well as the genetic mechanisms underlying human autism and intellectual disability. For this project, she will examine how autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-linked genes function to cause sex-specific differences in behavior, particularly through the use of a mouse model of ASD that is female-specific that demonstrates hyperexcitability of neocortical circuits. Understanding the interaction of sex and ASD-linked genes on cortical function is likely to have far-reaching impact on the larger field of ASD research.