Leanna Hernandez, PhD

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. I received my PhD in neuroscience and have extensive training in psychiatric genetics. My research laboratory integrates genetics, genomics, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate the biological mechanisms underlying autism, psychosis, and related psychiatric conditions. I have extensive expertise in methods for statistical genetics, including tools to quantify polygenicity and pleiotropy (heritability, genetic correlation, polygenic scores, GWAS), as well as functional genomics techniques (RNA sequencing, network biology, TWAS, and statistical finemapping). Currently, my lab is developing human brain reference panels for genetically regulated expression (GREx) by integrating PsychENCODE with other transcriptomic datasets to improve genomewide prediction of brain gene expression. We are also, in collaboration with the Global Biobank Meta-Analysis Initiative, leading GWAS to identify genetic variants associated with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders across multiple ancestries, applying functional genomic approaches to characterize these variants using fetal and adult brain reference panels. These projects provide opportunities for trainees to gain experience in statistical genetics, computational genomics, functional genomics, and the analysis of large-scale genomic datasets.

I am interested in serving as a faculty mentor for students in the UCLA Human Genetics PhD Program. In my capacity as research faculty, I have provided research training and mentorship to UCLA students at the undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral levels. This includes serving as a dissertation committee co-chair and committee member for two UCLA PhD students and providing hands-on instruction in research methods, bioinformatics, and genomic analyses to five students in UCLA’s Neuroscience and Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology PhD Programs. My teaching activities have also included coursework instruction. I serve as co-instructor for the graduate-level course “Phenotypic Measurement of Complex Traits” (NS 240) and as supervisor for the undergraduate “Student Research Program” (SRP 99/199) and “Honors Research” (C&S BIO 198).

As a mentor, I draw on my interdisciplinary training and am deeply committed to making research accessible to undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral trainees. I adapt my mentoring to align with each trainee’s skills and developmental goals, fostering sustained motivation and progress. In the lab, I employ a range of approaches, including direct instruction, scaffolded increases in responsibility, hands-on practice, open sharing and review of bioinformatics scripts and pipelines, and ongoing discussions of best practices and emerging methods. My philosophy is to meet trainees where they are and provide the tools and encouragement needed to support their growth in new directions. I would welcome the opportunity to mentor UCLA Human Genetics PhD students.

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