Professor Lawrence Wilkinson

Overview

Research summary

My research focus is on the rapidly evolving field of behavioural genetics/epigenetics, with an emphasis on cognition. Current main research interests include work on Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias; gene variants influencing attention and impulsive responding; novel X-linked effects on behaviour; and genomic imprinting effects on cognition and behaviour. Recent key findings includes evidence that tau irregularities in AD may be linked to abnormal processing of APP C-terminal fragments via specific effects on MAPK activation, evidence for tauopathy effects on frontal functioning mediated by changes in serotonin neurochemistry, new autosomal and X-linked genetic mechanisms influencing fear, attention and impulsive behaviour and the discovery of X-linked imprinted gene effects on cognitive function.