Daniel Campbell, PhD

Daniel Campbell, Assistant Professor in the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, studies the impact of genetic and environmental factors on brain development in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A major focus of Dr. Campbell's research is the long noncoding RNA's -- genes that are transcribed from DNA but not translated into protein. In the human brain noncoding RNA's have been overlooked. However, Dr. Campbell's research was the first to show that an ASD associated genetic variant implicates a specific long noncoding RNA (Science Translational Medicine, 2012). His laboratory's research has established the effects of manipulated expression of the ASD-associated long noncoding RNA in human neurons on neuronal architecture and gene expression (Genes, 2016; Developmental Neuroscience, 2016). His research involves indentifying al long noncoding RNA's expressed in human neurons, a goal that had not previously been realized (Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2015).

An additional interest to Dr. Campbell is gene-environment interactions that contribute to ASD risk. His group was the first to show specific gene-environment interaction between the gene MET and air pollution that independently contributes to risk of ASD (Epidemiology, 2014). Ongoing experiments seek to determine the impact of air pollution on gene expression in human neurons.