PERISTERA PASCHOU

Interim Head of Biological Sciences and Professor
765-494-4407
LILY1-225
ppaschou@purdue.edu

Associated website(s):

Paschou Lab Website , Publications

PROFESSIONAL FACULTY RESEARCH

Genetics of Complex Disorders, Psychiatric Genetics, Neurodevelopmental and Neurodegenerative Disorders, Neuroimaging Genetics, Human Population Genetics, Population Genetic Structure

BIO

Dr. Paschou is a Professor and Interim Head of Biological Sciences at Purdue University. She is also the Director of Global Partnerships for Purdue College of Science and serves on the leadership team of the Purdue Institute of Integrative Neuroscience . In 2019 she was named Showalter Faculty Scholar in recognition of her achievements in research excellence. Dr Paschou works at the intersection of Data Science and genomics research. She studies human genetic variation around the world aiming to understand the cause of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders as well as the factors that have shaped human population structure. Dr Paschou obtained her PhD from the University of Athens in Greece. During her graduate studies she also trained at the University of Oxford Welcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and the Pasteur Institute in Paris. She did her post-doctoral studies at Yale University where she also trained in Clinical Molecular Genetics, receiving certification by the American Board of Medical Genetics. She has held visiting positions at UCSF, UCLA and the National Institutes of Health. Dr Paschou has established and led multiple international collaborative consortia aiming to identify the genetic basis of neurodevelopmental disease through the analysis of large-scale datasets. She led the EU-funded European network for the Study of Tourette Syndrome with participation of 200 investigators from 23 countries. She has served as Chair of the European Society for the Study of Tourette Syndrome , and coordinated TS-EUROTRAIN , a Marie Curie Initial Training Network for Tourette Syndrome. She is currently Co-Chair of the ENIGMA-Tourette Syndrome Working Group , bringing together clinicians, geneticists, neuroimaging experts and data scientists from around the world in order to understand brain structure and function in neuropsychiatric disease. She is currently a PI on an international collaborative NINDS project aiming to analyze more than 12,000 patients with Tourette Syndrome in order to shed light into the genetic architecture of this disorder.

Links to selected press-releases about our work can be found here.

Education

2005 Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Genetics (August 2005) - Clinical Molecular Genetics Specialty . Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Genetics - Medical Genetics Training Program (2002-2005)

2002 - 2005 Postdoctoral Training, Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Genetics (Supervisor: Kenneth K. Kidd)

1999-2002 National University of Athens, PhD

1999-2000 University of Oxford, “Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics” – Training Fellowship

Positions

2023-today Interim Head, Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University
2021-today Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University
2019-2023 Associate Dean, College of Science, Purdue University
2021-today Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University
2019-today Associate Dean, College of Science, Purdue University
2016-2021 Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University
2018-2019 Inaugural Frederick Hovde Dean’s Fellow, College of Science, Purdue University
2014-2016 Associate Professor of Population Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (with Tenure)
2010-2014 Assistant Professor of Population Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
2011 Adjunct Investigator, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, USA
2005-2010 Lecturer in Population Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
2007 Visiting Scientist, Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics, Medical School, University of California Los Angeles, USA
2006 Visiting Specialist, Institute for Human Genetics, University of California San Francisco, USA
2002-2005 Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, USA
1999-2002 Research Associate, National University of Athens - European Cooperation Project: “Diabetes Prediction and Prevention - DIPP DEMO Project”