Biography

PERISTERA PASCHOU

Professor
LILLY 1-225
Phone: 765-494-1601
Email: ppaschou@purdue.edu

Click here for link to full CV

Dr. Paschou is a Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at Purdue University and Associate Dean at the Purdue College of Science. She also serves on the leadership team of the Purdue Institute of Integrative Neuroscience. In 2019 she was named Showalter Faculty Scholar receiving one of the highest honors at Purdue University, recognizing oustanding faculty who are on an accelerated path to academic distinction. Dr Paschou works at the intersection of Data Science and genomics research. She studies human genetic variation around the world aiming to understand the cause of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders as well as the factors that have shaped human population structure. Dr Paschou obtained her PhD from the University of Athens in Greece. During her graduate studies she also trained at the University of Oxford Welcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and the Pasteur Institute in Paris. She did her post-doctoral studies at Yale University where she also trained in Clinical Molecular Genetics, receiving certification by the American Board of Medical Genetics. She has held visiting positions at UCSF, UCLA and the National Institutes of Health. Dr Paschou has established and led multiple international collaborative consortia aiming to identify the genetic basis of neurodevelopmental disease through the analysis of large-scale datasets. She led the EU-funded European network for the Study of Tourette Syndrome with participation of 200 investigators from 23 countries. She has served as Chair of the European Society for the Study of Tourette Syndrome, and she is currently Co-Chair of the ENIGMA-Tourette Syndrome Working Group, bringing together clinicians, geneticists, neuroimaging experts and data scientists from around the world in order to understand brain structure and function in neuropsychiatric disease.

Links to selected press-releases about our work can be found here.

Research at the Paschou lab

Elucidating the genetic background of neurodevelopmental phenotypes. A major focus of the Paschou lab is understanding the genetics of Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome and associated disorders including autism, obsessive compulsive disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Dr Paschou studies genomewide datasets and has a leading role in multiple large-scale collaborative efforts such as the EMTICS and TS-EUROTRAIN consortia. She is also a PI in the NINDS project aiming to carry out a mega-genomewide association study for Tourette Syndrome on more than 12,000 cases. As a member of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, she studies neurobiology that cuts across traditional diagnostic boundaries of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders.

Studying human genetic variation around the world. Dr Paschou investigates human evolution and the migration patterns of the human population across the globe and in particular population movements around the Mediterranean basin (GENOMAP.GR project). Interdisciplinarity is an important aspect of her work transfering algorithms and methodology from the fields of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics to population genetics and medical genetics. In an era of Big Data and the ability to mine the genome of hundreds of thousands of individuals, such approaches pave the way towards the direction of personalized medicine.

EDUCATION

2005             Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Genetics (August 2005) - Clinical Molecular Genetics Specialty. Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Genetics - Medical Genetics Training Program (2002-2005)

2002-2005   Postdoctoral Training, Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Genetics (Supervisor: Kenneth K. Kidd)

1999-2002   National University of Athens, PhD

1999-2000   University of Oxford, “Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics” – Training Fellowship

POSITIONS

2021             Professor, Purdue University, Department of Biological Sciences

2021             Associate Dean for Graduate Education $ Strategic Initiatives, Purdue College of Science

2019             Associate Dean for Online and Graduate Education, College of Science, Purdue University

2016             Associate Professor, (tenured) Purdue University, Department of Biological Sciences

2015             Associate Professor of Population Genetics, (tenured) Democritus University of Thrace, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics

2010-2015   Assistant Professor of Population Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics

2011             Adjunct Investigator, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, USA

2005-2010   Lecturer in Population Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics

2007             Visiting Scientist, Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics, Medical School, University of California Los Angeles, USA

2006             Visiting Specialist, Institute for Human Genetics, University of California San Francisco, USA

2002-2005   Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, USA

1999-2002   Research Associate, National University of Athens - European Cooperation Project: “Diabetes Prediction and Prevention - DIPP DEMO Project”

Boards of scientific societies

2014-2017   Board Member European Society for the Study of Tourette Syndrome (ESSTS)

2011-2014   Chair of the European Society for the Study of Tourette Syndrome (ESSTS)

2011-2012   Treasurer of the Board of Directors - Hellenic Association for Medical Genetics

Editorial boards

2009-2014   Academic Editor - Journal of Medical Genetics

2011-today  Review Editor -  Frontiers in Evolutionary and Population Genetics

2012-today  Academic Editor - PLOS ONE

2015             Editor – Frontiers Research Topic: The Neurobiology and Genetics of Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome

Honors

2019             Showalter Faculty Scholar

2015             Latsis Foundation – Award for 2015 Scientific Studies by Young Researchers

2014             ARISTEIA II – Excellence Career Award, co-funded by Greece and the European Union

2005             Hellenic Endocrine Society, 1^st research grant award

PUBLICATIONS 

Links to our papers can be found here.

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