Meet the Team

Jeremiah Scharf, MD, PhD

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Dr. Jeremiah Scharf is a behavioral neurologist and neuropsychiatric geneticist whose academic interests lie in disorders that bridge the gap between traditional neurologic and psychiatric concepts of disease. Despite being a native New Yorker and a lapsed Yankees fan, Jeremiah moved to Boston after college and never left.

He received his B.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, and a combined M.D. from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Harvard University, where he worked with Dr. Louis Kunkel to identify modifying genes for spinal muscular atrophy. After completing Neurology residency at Mass General Brigham and a clinical fellowship in Behavioral Neurology/Neuropsychiatry, Jeremiah was drawn to Tourette Syndrome (TS) clinical care and research, since TS has long been considered a highly heritable, paradigmatic neuropsychiatric disorder, thus providing a unique opportunity to dissect the genetic and molecular basis of the brain circuitry at the interface of neurology and psychiatry and to use this knowledge to improve diagnosis, treatment and quality of life for individuals and families.

In his post-doctoral work with Dr. David Pauls, he led the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) for Tourette Syndrome and co-led a parallel GWAS for OCD. As an independent CGM faculty member, he has overseen cross-disorder genetic analyses of TS and OCD, as well as multi-center GWAS, CNV, exome and whole-genome sequencing studies of TS and related disorders. The lab’s work has been supported by grants from the Tourette Association of America, the American Academy of Neurology, the TLC Foundation for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (BFRBs), and the National Institutes of Health (NINDS, NIMH, and NHGRI).

Current Lab Members & Collaborators

Danaira Moradel, BBA

SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE COORDINATOR

Marisela E. Dy-Hollins, MD, MSCR

PEDIATRIC NEUROLOGIST & DIRECTOR, PEDIATRIC MOVEMENT DISORDERS CLINIC

Ariadne Kaylor, BS

CLINICAL RESEARCH COORDINATOR II

Dongmei Yu, PhD

BIOSTATISTICIAN EPIDEMIOLOGIST

Franjo Ivankovic, PhD

ASSOCIATE RESEARCH FELLOW, NEALE LAB

Erica Greenberg, MD

DIRECTOR, PEDIATRIC PSYCHIATRY OCD AND TIC DISORDERS PROGRAM

Scharf Lab Alumni

Lisa Osiecki, MSW

FORMER POSITION: Database Manager

CURRENT POSITION: BH Clinician at Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program

Laura Domenech Salgado, PhD

FORMER POSITION: Post-Doctoral Research Fellow

CURRENT POSITION: Staff Scientist at the Broad Institute

Evan Realbuto, BA

FORMER POSITION: Clinical Research Coordinator II

CURRENT POSITION: Mental Health Counseling student at the University of Rochester

Daisy Noriega-Makarskyy, BA

FORMER POSITION: Clinical Research Coordinator II

CURRENT POSITION: Clinical Psychology PhD student at the University of Southern California

Cornelia Illmann, PhD

FORMER POSITION: Research Project Director

Angela Essa, MD

FORMER POSITION: Clinical Research Coordinator II

CURRENT POSITION: Obstetrics and Gynecology Resident Physician at UMass-Baystate

Kelly Yang, MD, MS

FORMER POSITION: Clinical Research Coordinator

CURRENT POSITION: Psychiatry Resident at NYU Langone Health

Caitlin Gauvin, DO

FORMER POSITION: Clinical Research Coordinator II

CURRENT POSITION: Internist at Stony Brook

Sarah Weatherall, MD

FORMER POSITION: Research Technician II

CURRENT POSITION: Internist at West Roxbury VA Medical Center

Janelle Alabiso, PhD

FORMER POSITION: Clinical Research Assistant

CURRENT POSITION: Licensed Psychologist, Founder and Director of Greenleaf Therapy

Gloria Gerber, MD

FORMER POSITION: Research Lab Technician

CURRENT POSITION: Assistant Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, Division of Hematology

Jacquelyn Crane, MD

FORMER POSITION: Laboratory Technician

CURRENT POSITION: Assistant Professor and Pediatric Oncologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Lauren McGrath, PhD

FORMER POSITION: Postdoctoral Research Fellow

CURRENT POSITION: Associate Professor and Director of the L.E.a.R.N. Lab at University of Denver, Psychology Department

Paul Lee, MD, MS-HPEd, MPH

FORMER POSITION: Postdoctoral Research Fellow

CURRENT POSITION: Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Attending Psychiatrist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Erica Greenberg, MD

FORMER POSITION: Resident Research Fellow

CURRENT POSITION: Director of Pediatric Psychiatry OCD and Tic Disorders Program at MGH

Xiumei Liu, MD, PhD

FORMER POSITION: Visiting Research Fellow

CURRENT POSITION: Associate Professor at Qingdao University and Fujian Medical University