Margit Burmeister, Ph.D.

The Burmeister lab works to identify the genes involved in brain disorders and the roles they play in disease processes and how they interact with the environment. They have discovered numerous genes involved in neurological disorders including deafness and ataxia. Their studies of ataxias and other rare neurological disorders involve gathering genetic information from families with these disorders and performing analyses that combine genetic linkages, genome-wide gene association studies (GWAS) and next generation sequencing (NGS).

These same novel technologies are being employed in the Burmeister lab to untangle the extraordinarily complex interaction between genetic risk factors, human behavior and environmental factors such as stress in the development of psychiatric illnesses such as depression and addictions.

Work on depression is in collaboration with Dr. Srijan Sen, a former student of Dr. Burmeister, and of addictions primarily with Dr. Mark Greenwald at Wayne State University.

This multidisciplinary approach involves the collaboration of not only geneticists, but clinicians, psychologists, epidemiologists, statisticians and bioinformaticians both here and in China, where Burmeister spends several months each year teaching and conducting research. 

Research Highlights 

What is (not) in our genes 

Dr. Burmeister is interested in how our genetic make-up affects our behavior, and how we may modify our behavior according to genotype. One example is chronotype, whether we are early birds or night owls - if we can, early birds would get up early and work early, and night owls late. But medical interns have to go with the hospital schedule, so can’t modify their environment. In a recent study in collaborationv with Srijan Sen and Daniel Forger and his postdoc, Jonathan Tyler, we divided medical interns in “morning” types and “evening” types based purely on their genotypes. The graph below shows that those medical interns who have a genetic predisposition to be “night owls” lost much more sleep a week after the day light saving time change than those who are genetically tending to be early birds. 

This is just one example of how Dr. Burmeister is thinking - we shouldn’t think of most genetic predispositions as deterministic, but as giving a basis, on which often our behavior and life style can modify outcomes - so someone with a genetic predisposition to be a night owl won’t lose sleep with DST if they can adjust their schedule, someone with a genetic predisposition to diabetes can prevent getting diabetes by avoiding eating and drinking sugar, exercising, and maintaining a healthy weight, and someone with a genetic predisposition to depression may avoid getting a depressive episode by avoiding alcohol and illicit drug use and stress. 

To read more please visit https://rdcu.be/cpfvZ