Daniel Felsky

Dr. Felsky completed his PhD in neuroimaging and genetics of Alzheimer’s disease at CAMH in 2015. Following this, Dr. Felsky completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Anne Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, in Boston, and the Centre for Translational and Computational Neuroimmunology at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York. As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Felsky studied the genetic links between central and peripheral immune diseases and the morphology of the brain’s resident immune cells, microglia. While in Boston and New York, Dr. Felsky collaborated closely with investigators at Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago, publishing the first genome-wide study of microglial activation in humans.

Research Synopsis

Dr. Felsky has experience across several areas including structural brain imaging, human genomics and transcriptomics, biostatistics, psychiatric epidemiology, and study design, and has published work on the genetic causes of Alzheimer’s disease, brain structural deficits in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, as well as the pharmacogenetics of antipsychotic treatment response. In addition to his research, Dr. Felsky is a passionate teacher, and has led curriculum and teaching efforts as a Fellow for the Harvard Global Initiative for Neuropsychiatric Genetics Education in Research, co-sponsored by the Stanley Centre for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Recent Publications

Ng B, Casazza W, Patrick E, Tasaki S, Novakovsky G, Felsky D, Ma Y, Bennett DA, Gaiteri C, De Jager PL, Mostafavi S.  Using Transcriptomic Hidden Variables to Infer Context-Specific Genotype Effects in the Brain. The American Journal of Human Genetics. 2019 Aug 21. pii: S0002-9297(19)30279-4. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2019.07.016. [Epub ahead of print]

Felsky D, Roostaei T, Nho K, Risacher SL, Bradshaw EM, Petyuk V, Schneider JA, Saykin A, Bennett DA, De Jager PL. Neuropathological correlates and genetic architecture of microglial activation in elderly human brain. Nature Communications. 2019 Jan 24;10(1):409. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-08279-3.

Felsky D, Patrick E, Schneider JA, Mostafavi S, Gatieri, C, Patsopoulos N, Bennett DA, De Jager PL. Polygenic Analysis Identifies Selected Inflammatory Disease Variants That Affect Microglia in the Aging Brain. Molecular Neurodegeneration. 2018 Jul 24;13(1):38. doi: 10.1186/s13024-018-0272-6.

Stojanovski S, Felsky D, Viviano J, Shahab S, Bangali R, Burton C, Dalsgaard S, Szatmari P, Chakravarty MM, Ameis S, Schachar R, Voinesekos AN, Wheeler AL. Polygenic Risk and Neural Substrates of ADHD Symptoms Differ in Youth with a History of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. Biological Psychiatry.  2018 Jul 12. pii: S0006-3223(18)31669-X

De Jager PL, Ma Y, McCabe C, Xu J, Vardarajan BN, Felsky D, Klein HU, White CC, Petters MA, Lodgson B, Nejad P, Tang, A, Mangravite LM, Yu L, Gaiteri, C, Mostafavi S, Schneider JA, Bennett, DA. A multi-omic atlas of the human frontal cortex for aging and Alzheimer’s disease research. Scientific Data. 2018 Aug 7;5:180142. doi: 10.1038/sdata.2018.142.

Felsky D, Xu J, Chibnik, L, Knight, J, Schneider JA, Kennedy JL, the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, Bennett DA, De Jager PL, and Voineskos AN. Genetic Epistasis Regulates Amyloid Deposition in Resilient Aging. Alzheimer’s and Dementia. 2017 Mar 17. pii: S1552-5260(17)30088-2. doi: 10.1016/j.jalz.2017.01.027. [Epub ahead of print].

Link to full publication list: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=L75YFRkAAAAJ&hl=en

Appointments

Honours and Awards

Columbia University Carlos Rueda Diez Teaching Award for excellence and dedication to teaching (2018)

CIHR Institute of Aging Fellowship Prize of Excellence in Research on Aging (2016)

CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship (2016-2019)

3rd place in American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) Annual Meeting Poster Competition (2015)

University of Toronto Alumni Association (UTAA) Graduate Scholar (2015)

3rd place in the 11th Annual International Imaging-Genetics Conference Poster Competition (2015)

Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement - Canada Graduate Scholarships, CIHR (2014-2015)

First Prize, Laidlaw Manuscript Competition - Clinical. Scientific Day, Institute of Medical Science, U of T (2014)

Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (2014-2017)

Peterborough K.M. Hunter Graduate Studentship, U of T Faculty of Medicine (2013-2014)

The Heather Munroe-Blum Award for Best presentation/Paper by a Graduate Student, U of T (2012-2013)

Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2013-2014)

Alzheimer’s Society Research Program Doctoral Award (2013-2016)

Alan Wu Poster Competition, honorable mention, U of T (2013)

Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2012-2013)

Open Fellowship Award, Institute of Medical Science, U of T (2012-2013)

SCACE Graduate Fellowship in Alzheimer’s Research, Ontario Student Opportunities Trust Fund (2012-2013)

Margaret and Howard Gamble Research Grant, Ontario Student Opportunities Trust Fund (2012-2013)

The Heather Munroe-Blum Award for Best presentation/Paper by a Graduate Student, U of T (2011-2012)

School of Graduate Studies Conference Grant, U of T (2011)

International Imaging-Genetics Conference, University of California-Irvine (2011)