Dr. M. Chiara Manzini is an Associate Professor at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in the Child Health Institute of New Jersey and the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology. She initially trained in Human Genetics at the University of Pavia in Italy and received her PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University. She then completed postdoctoral training at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Neurogenetics studying multiple types of brain malformations and non-syndromic intellectual disability and autism. The main goal of Dr. Manzini’s research is to bridge the genetics and mechanisms of disease to identify genes that are essential for human cognition and to define the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders focusing on autism and neuromuscular disorders. The Manzini lab combines human genetics with molecular, cellular, and behavioral approaches in murine and zebrafish models to link human genetics to neuronal cell biology, intracellular signaling, and behavior.