Megan E. Williams

A clinically identified Kirrel3 variant disrupts trans-synaptic circuit assembly

The paper shows a Kirrel3 variant disrupts synapse formation and CA3 activity in mice, linking it to autism-related circuit assembly issues.

A Microglial Regulatory Program Linked to Neuropsychiatric Disorders

The paper identifies a Hoxb8-dependent transcriptional program in microglia linked to neuropsychiatric disorders through integrated chromatin and transcriptional analyses in mice.

Inhibitory neurons marked by the connectivity molecule Kirrel3 regulate memory precision

This study identifies Kirrel3-expressing inhibitory neurons that regulate memory discrimination in mice by inhibiting CA3 neuron activity during memory recall.

Modular Splicing is Linked to Evolution in the Synapse-Specificity Molecule Kirrel3

The paper characterizes Kirrel3 isoforms in mouse and human brain using long-read sequencing, identifies novel exons, and links splicing diversity to evolutionary changes in synapse-specificity.

Kirrel3-mediated synapse formation is attenuated by disease-associated missense variants

The paper tests disease-associated Kirrel3 missense variants and finds five attenuate synapse formation, suggesting Kirrel3's synaptogenic function is disrupted in autism and intellectual disability.

DiI-mediated analysis of pre- and postsynaptic structures in human postmortem brain tissue

This paper introduces a method to analyze synapse-level neuron morphology in human postmortem tissue, finding age-related changes in presynaptic structures but not postsynaptic ones.

Genomewide significant regions in 43 Utah high-risk families implicate multiple genes involved in risk for completed suicide

The paper identifies 207 genes associated with completed suicide using genomic data from 43 high-risk Utah families, finding four significant variants linked to suicide risk.