Jason Lerch
Professor of Neuroscience
I am the director of Preclinical Imaging at the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (WIN) at the University of Oxford (and retain my affiliations in Canada as an adjunct scientist at the Mouse Imaging Centre (MICe) of the Hospital for Sick Children and an associate professor in medical biophysics at the University of Toronto).
My primary research interests are:
- parsing autism and related neurodevelopmental conditions
- understanding how sex and gender shape the brain and how that drives sex disparities in multiple mental health conditions
- figuring out the bases of MRI detectable brain plasticity
Underlying these research interests is a keen desire to improve our acquisition, processing, and analysis methods. This relates in particular to how we can combine mechanistic experiments in model species, in particular the mouse, with human patient and population studies.
DPHIL projects
I have regular DPhil opportunities for candidates with a background in neuroscience, engineering, computer science, or physics. Projects will usually be designed collaboratively with the candidate. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss possible projects, including an up-to-date CV.
Key publications
Whole-brain comparison of rodent and human brains using spatial transcriptomics
Journal article
Beauchamp A. et al, (2022), eLife, 11
Examining overlap and homogeneity in ASD, ADHD, and OCD: a data-driven, diagnosis-agnostic approach
Journal article
Kushki A. et al, (2019), Translational Psychiatry, 9
Mouse MRI shows brain areas relatively larger in males emerge before those larger in females
Journal article
Qiu LR. et al, (2018), Nature Communications, 9
Clustering autism: Using neuroanatomical differences in 26 mouse models to gain insight into the heterogeneity
Journal article
Ellegood J. et al, (2015), Molecular Psychiatry, 20, 118 - 125
Maze training in mice induces MRI-detectable brain shape changes specific to the type of learning
Journal article
Lerch JP. et al, (2011), NeuroImage, 54, 2086 - 2095
Recent publications
Regional sex differences in human cortical anatomy vary in their morphometric bases and overlap with sex chromosomal and gonadal influences
Journal article
Lee HM. et al, (2026), Nature Communications, 17
Enhanced mGluR1 function causes motor deficits and region-specific Purkinje cell dysfunction
Journal article
Ibrahim MF. et al, (2026), Brain, 149, 2774 - 2790
Autism-like phenotypes and increased NMDAR2D expression in mice with KDM5B histone lysine demethylase deficiency
Journal article
Pérez-Sisqués L. et al, (2026), Science Advances, 12
Translating brain anatomy and disease from mouse to human in latent gene expression space
Journal article
Jaroszynski C. et al, (2026), Ebiomedicine, 127
Regulation of autism-related self-injurious behavior by electrical stimulation of corticostriatal circuits in mice and humans
Journal article
Zhang K. et al, (2026), Science Advances, 12