Jason Lerch, Ph.D.

Director of Preclinical Imaging, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford
Adjunct Scientist, Mouse Imaging Centre, The Hospital for Sick Children
Associate Professor in Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto

SFARI Investigator Website

Jason Lerch is the director of Preclinical Imaging at the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN) at the University of Oxford, an adjunct scientist at the Mouse Imaging Centre (MICe) of the Hospital for Sick Children and an associate professor in medical biophysics at the University of Toronto.

Lerch joined WIN in March of 2019; prior to that, he completed his Ph.D. in 2005 in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University and a postdoctoral fellowship at MICe from 2005 to 2008 with Mark Henkelman and John Sled. He received his B.A. in 1999 in anthropology and social studies of medicine from McGill University. His Ph.D. research, under the supervision of Alan Evans, was on in vivo measurements of cortical thickness from magnetic resonance imaging scans.

His current research focus is on detecting neuroanatomical changes due to behavioral and genetic manipulations in mouse models, primarily related to neurodevelopmental disorders, and to relate these findings to human subjects.

Funded Projects

Brain imaging of treatment response

Awarded: 2015
Award Type: Pilot

SFARI Funded Publications

Brain mapping across 16 autism mouse models reveals a spectrum of functional connectivity subtypes. Zerbi V., Pagani M., Markicevic M., Matteoli M., Pozzi D., Fagiolini M., Bozzi Y., Galbusera A., Scattoni M.L., Provenzano G., Banerjee A., Helmchen F., Basson M. A., Ellegood J., Lerch J., Rudin M., Gozzi A., Wenderoth N.

Placental endocrine function shapes cerebellar development and social behavior. Vacher C.-M., Lacaille H., O’Reilly J.J., Salzbank J., Bakalar D., Sebaoui S., Liere P., Clarkson-Paredes C., Sasaki T., Sathyanesan A., Kratimenos P., Ellegood J., Lerch J., Imamura Y., Popratiloff A., Hashimoto-Torii K., Gallo V., Schumacher M., Penn A. A.

Research Highlight

Autism-linked Cullin3 germline haploinsufficiency impacts cytoskeletal dynamics and cortical neurogenesis through RhoA signaling. Amar M., Pramod A.B., Yu N.-K., Herrera V.M., Qiu L.R., Moran-Losada P., Zhang P., Trujillo C.A., Ellegood J., Urresti J., Chau K., Diedrich J., Chen J., Gutierrez J., Sebat J., Ramanathan D., Lerch J., Yates J.R. 3rd, Muotri A., Iakoucheva L.

Research Highlight