Aravinda Chakravarti is a professor in the Department of Medicine and the Institute for Systems Genetics, the Muriel G. and George W. Singer Professor of Neuroscience and Physiology and the director of the Center for Human Genetics and Genomics at New York University School of Medicine.

Chakravarti’s laboratory applies molecular genetic, genomic and computational methods in humans and animal models to uncover genes and molecular mechanisms involved in complex human diseases, including neurodevelopmental disorders (autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disease and Hirschsprung disease) and cardiovascular disorders (hypertension, sudden cardiac death). Due to the genetic complexity of such disorders, the laboratory relies on human genomic sequencing data, comparative sequencing from many other vertebrates and the genome-wide map of polymorphic sites (International HapMap Project) for their genetic analyses. The laboratory is particularly interested in developing a paradigm for the genetics of common mutations, focused on developing gene regulatory networks by functional cell types as a basis for the multigenic action and interactions in complex traits.