Michael Totty

I am a neuroscientist working at the intersection of molecular, computational, and systems neuroscience. My research combines transcriptomic profiling of the human brain with circuit-level studies in preclinical models to uncover how cell types and neural pathways are altered in psychiatric disease. This two-part strategy links the identification of vulnerable cell types and circuits in postmortem human brains with experimental dissection of their functional roles in vivo. In parallel, I develop novel computational tools and data resources to accelerate discovery and advance our understanding of the neural circuits that underlie psychiatric disorders across species.

Currently, I’m a Research Scientist at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development, where I lead a research program combining postmortem human transcriptomics with circuit-level neuroscience in preclinical models. This work is supported by a Young Investigator Award from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.

Previously, I was an NIMH F32 Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, advised by Dr. Stephanie Hicks and co-advised by Dr. Keri Martinowich of the Lieber Institute for Brain Development. I received my PhD in Neuroscience under the mentorship of Dr. Stephen Maren at the Institute for Neuroscience at Texas A&M University in 2022, and a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Tennessee in 2016.