Michael Saul, Ph.D.

My perspective on biology celebrates what diversity can teach us. Within the mouse species, I study genetically diverse populations such as the BXD, Collaborative Cross, and Diversity Outbred. With Elissa Chesler and colleagues in the CSNA, my work has reiterated that who a mouse is – their genetic makeup and its sex – matters greatly to how a mouse behaves and how their brain responds. I am particularly interested in comparative and cross-species techniques, which give us perspective on the conserved systems that underpin similar behaviors spanning the animal kingdom.

Though I now work in Computational Science, my training was as a mouse behavioral neuroscientist who studies genetics and genomics. My work convinced me that biologists must do two things to understand complex systems like the brain: 1) collaborate with each other, and 2) use high-throughput techniques like next-generation sequencing and high-performance computing. I am delighted to collaborate with multiple investigators at JAX, where I apply the skills I attained in computational work to find the new biology of disease that will lead us to better treatments.

Michael Saul on ORCID

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