About

Cristin Millett is a Professor of Art in the School of Visual Arts at Penn State and an Embedded Faculty Researcher in the Arts + Design Research Incubator. Her artistic practice straddles traditional disciplinary boundaries, with investigations into medicine and its history being integral to her work. She employs a toolkit of sculptural processes that incorporate new advances in digital technology alongside established methods such as stone carving and bronze casting. Her artworks and installations serve as contemporary cultural critiques of societal issues surrounding reproduction and gender identity. In 2020, Millett was awarded a Fulbright to the University of Western Australia, where she was an artist in residence at SymbioticA, an artistic laboratory dedicated to research and engagement with the life sciences. During her residency, she studied the science of ectogenesis—the augmentation or replacement of the fecund uterus by a machine—and created a sculptural artwork titled Ex-Utero, which prompts discussions about the socio-cultural impact of this science with far-reaching implications for humanity. Her work has been exhibited widely at venues including Villa Strozzi in Florence, the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago, the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. Millett's artistic practice combines sculpture, digital technology, and scientific inquiry to explore complex themes related to medicine, reproduction, and societal identity.

Research topics

• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Science
• Data science
• Medicine
• Genetics
• Computational biology
• Biology
• Bioinformatics
• Pathology

Selected publications

• Functional Outcomes in Bipolar Disorder: Cross-Cohort Analyses from the Global Bipolar Cohort

  Research Square · 2026-05-11

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• The role of blood–brain barrier dysfunction in cognitive impairments in bipolar disorder—a narrative review

  Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · 2025-02-19 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic and debilitating mental illness affecting approximately 40 million people worldwide. Cognitive impairment is a core feature of BD, impacting daily functioning and persisting even during mood stability. Cognitive deficits are among the most reliable indicators of long-term functional outcomes in BD. Despite their significance, there are currently no widely available treatments targeting cognitive impairment in BD, largely due to our limited understanding of the underlying pathophysiology. A healthy blood-brain barrier (BBB) is essential for brain homeostasis, serving as a protective filter that restricts peripheral toxins, pathogens, and ions from entering the brain and disrupting neuronal function. Increased BBB permeability can allow harmful substances to infiltrate the brain, potentially leading to neuroinflammation, disrupted signaling, and damage to brain tissue, all of which may contribute to cognitive impairments in BD. Thus, BBB dysfunction could represent an upstream driver of cognitive impairment in BD, offering a potential target for disease-modifying interventions. This narrative review examined the evidence for the link between BBB permeability and cognitive deficits in BD. Our search yielded limited studies with mixed findings, highlighting the significant need for further research to explore this critical area and its potential for developing disease-modifying treatments.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Perceived loneliness and social support in bipolar disorder: relation to suicidal ideation and attempts

  International Journal of Bipolar Disorders · 2024-03-20 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: The suicide rate in bipolar disorder (BD) is among the highest across all psychiatric disorders. Identifying modifiable variables that relate to suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) in BD may inform prevention strategies. Social connectedness is a modifiable variable found to relate to STBs in the general population, but differences exist across subgroups of the general population and findings specifically in BD have been equivocal. We aimed to clarify how perceived social connectedness relates to STBs in BD. METHOD: 146 adults (86 BD, 60 healthy controls) completed clinical interviews (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale; Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5) and self-report measures of loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale) and social support (Interpersonal Support Evaluation List). Analyses explored differences in indicators of social connectedness (loneliness and social support) between BD participants and healthy controls, and explored relationships between STBs (lifetime suicide attempts and current suicidal ideation) and indicators of social connectedness in BD participants. RESULTS: BD participants reported significantly higher loneliness and lower social support than healthy controls. In BD participants, perceived social support was significantly related to both ever having attempted suicide and number of lifetime attempts. Interestingly, perceived loneliness, but not social support, was significantly associated with current suicidal ideation. CONCLUSIONS: Findings expand the evidence base supporting a relationship between perceived social connectedness and STBs in BD. They suggest that this modifiable variable could be a fruitful treatment target for preventing STBs in BD.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cognition in older age bipolar disorder: An analysis of archival data across the globe

  Journal of Affective Disorders · 2024-03-26 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The effect of aging on facial emotion recognition in bipolar disorder

  Psychiatry Research · 2023-07-29 · 2 citations

  article1st author
  PublisherDOI

• Patterns of pharmacotherapy for bipolar disorder: A <scp>GBC</scp> survey

  Bipolar Disorders · 2023-07-18 · 74 citations

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVES: To understand treatment practices for bipolar disorders (BD), this study leveraged the Global Bipolar Cohort collaborative network to investigate pharmacotherapeutic treatment patterns in multiple cohorts of well-characterized individuals with BD in North America, Europe, and Australia. METHODS: Data on pharmacotherapy, demographics, diagnostic subtypes, and comorbidities were provided from each participating cohort. Individual site and regional pooled proportional meta-analyses with generalized linear mixed methods were conducted to identify prescription patterns. RESULTS: This study included 10,351 individuals from North America (n = 3985), Europe (n = 3822), and Australia (n = 2544). Overall, participants were predominantly female (60%) with BD-I (60%; vs. BD-II = 33%). Cross-sectionally, mood-stabilizing anticonvulsants (44%), second-generation antipsychotics (42%), and antidepressants (38%) were the most prescribed medications. Lithium was prescribed in 29% of patients, primarily in the Australian (31%) and European (36%) cohorts. First-generation antipsychotics were prescribed in 24% of the European versus 1% in the North American cohort. Antidepressant prescription rates were higher in BD-II (47%) compared to BD-I (35%). Major limitations were significant differences among cohorts based on inclusion/exclusion criteria, data source, and time/year of enrollment into cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Mood-stabilizing anticonvulsants, second-generation antipsychotics, and antidepressants were the most prescribed medications suggesting prescription patterns that are not necessarily guideline concordant. Significant differences exist in the prescription practices across different geographic regions, especially the underutilization of lithium in the North American cohorts and the higher utilization of first-generation antipsychotics in the European cohorts. There is a need to conduct future longitudinal studies to further explore these differences and their impact on outcomes, and to inform and implement evidence-based guidelines to help improve treatment practices in BD.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Human Phenotype Ontology in 2024: phenotypes around the world

  Nucleic Acids Research · 2023 · 356 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Biology

  The Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) is a widely used resource that comprehensively organizes and defines the phenotypic features of human disease, enabling computational inference and supporting genomic and phenotypic analyses through semantic similarity and machine learning algorithms. The HPO has widespread applications in clinical diagnostics and translational research, including genomic diagnostics, gene-disease discovery, and cohort analytics. In recent years, groups around the world have developed translations of the HPO from English to other languages, and the HPO browser has been internationalized, allowing users to view HPO term labels and in many cases synonyms and definitions in ten languages in addition to English. Since our last report, a total of 2239 new HPO terms and 49235 new HPO annotations were developed, many in collaboration with external groups in the fields of psychiatry, arthrogryposis, immunology and cardiology. The Medical Action Ontology (MAxO) is a new effort to model treatments and other measures taken for clinical management. Finally, the HPO consortium is contributing to efforts to integrate the HPO and the GA4GH Phenopacket Schema into electronic health records (EHRs) with the goal of more standardized and computable integration of rare disease data in EHRs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Focal adhesion is associated with lithium response in bipolar disorder: evidence from a network-based multi-omics analysis

  Molecular Psychiatry · 2023-03-29 · 27 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Lithium (Li) is one of the most effective drugs for treating bipolar disorder (BD), however, there is presently no way to predict response to guide treatment. The aim of this study is to identify functional genes and pathways that distinguish BD Li responders (LR) from BD Li non-responders (NR). An initial Pharmacogenomics of Bipolar Disorder study (PGBD) GWAS of lithium response did not provide any significant results. As a result, we then employed network-based integrative analysis of transcriptomic and genomic data. In transcriptomic study of iPSC-derived neurons, 41 significantly differentially expressed (DE) genes were identified in LR vs NR regardless of lithium exposure. In the PGBD, post-GWAS gene prioritization using the GWA-boosting (GWAB) approach identified 1119 candidate genes. Following DE-derived network propagation, there was a highly significant overlap of genes between the top 500- and top 2000-proximal gene networks and the GWAB gene list ( P hypergeometric = 1.28E–09 and 4.10E–18, respectively). Functional enrichment analyses of the top 500 proximal network genes identified focal adhesion and the extracellular matrix (ECM) as the most significant functions. Our findings suggest that the difference between LR and NR was a much greater effect than that of lithium. The direct impact of dysregulation of focal adhesion on axon guidance and neuronal circuits could underpin mechanisms of response to lithium, as well as underlying BD. It also highlights the power of integrative multi-omics analysis of transcriptomic and genomic profiling to gain molecular insights into lithium response in BD.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Predictors of Functional Impairment in Bipolar Disorder: Results From 13 Cohorts From Seven Countries by the Global Bipolar Cohort Collaborative

  FOCUS The Journal of Lifelong Learning in Psychiatry · 2023-10-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Objectives: Persistent functional impairment is common in bipolar disorder (BD) and is influenced by a number of demographic, clinical, and cognitive features. The goal of this project was to estimate and compare the influence of key factors on community function in multiple cohorts of well-characterized samples of individuals with BD. Methods: Thirteen cohorts from 7 countries included n = 5882 individuals with BD across multiple sites. The statistical approach consisted of a systematic uniform application of analyses across sites. Each site performed a logistic regression analysis with empirically derived “higher versus lower function” as the dependent variable and selected clinical and demographic variables as predictors. Results: We found high rates of functional impairment, ranging from 41 to 75%. Lower community functioning was associated with depressive symptoms in 10 of 12 of the cohorts that included this variable in the analysis. Lower levels of education, a greater number of prior mood episodes, the presence of a comorbid substance use disorder, and a greater total number of psychotropic medications were also associated with low functioning. Conclusions: The bipolar clinical research community is poised to work together to characterize the multi-dimensional contributors to impairment and address the barriers that impede patients' complete recovery. We must also identify the core features which enable many to thrive and live successfully with BD. A large-scale, worldwide, prospective longitudinal study focused squarely on BD and its heterogeneous presentations will serve as a platform for discovery and promote major advances toward optimizing outcomes for every individual with this illness. Reprinted from Bipolar Disord 2022; 24:709–719, with permission from John Wiley and Sons. Copyright © 2022

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Predictors of functional impairment in bipolar disorder: Results from 13 cohorts from seven countries by the global bipolar cohort collaborative

  Bipolar Disorders · 2022-03-24 · 59 citations

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVES: Persistent functional impairment is common in bipolar disorder (BD) and is influenced by a number of demographic, clinical, and cognitive features. The goal of this project was to estimate and compare the influence of key factors on community function in multiple cohorts of well-characterized samples of individuals with BD. METHODS: Thirteen cohorts from 7 countries included n = 5882 individuals with BD across multiple sites. The statistical approach consisted of a systematic uniform application of analyses across sites. Each site performed a logistic regression analysis with empirically derived "higher versus lower function" as the dependent variable and selected clinical and demographic variables as predictors. RESULTS: We found high rates of functional impairment, ranging from 41 to 75%. Lower community functioning was associated with depressive symptoms in 10 of 12 of the cohorts that included this variable in the analysis. Lower levels of education, a greater number of prior mood episodes, the presence of a comorbid substance use disorder, and a greater total number of psychotropic medications were also associated with low functioning. CONCLUSIONS: The bipolar clinical research community is poised to work together to characterize the multi-dimensional contributors to impairment and address the barriers that impede patients' complete recovery. We must also identify the core features which enable many to thrive and live successfully with BD. A large-scale, worldwide, prospective longitudinal study focused squarely on BD and its heterogeneous presentations will serve as a platform for discovery and promote major advances toward optimizing outcomes for every individual with this illness.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Katherine E. Burdick

  Harvard University

  90 shared

• O. Godin

  Fondation FondaMental

  43 shared

• Marion Leboyer

  Université Paris-Est Créteil

  43 shared

• Michael Berk

  Deakin University

  40 shared

• Joanna M. Biernacka

  Mayo Clinic in Florida

  38 shared

• Martha Sajatovic

  Case Western Reserve University

  37 shared

• Andrew A. Nierenberg

  36 shared

• Amy T. Peters

  Massachusetts General Hospital

  36 shared

Awards & honors

• 2019–20 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant, Research Scholar at th…
• 2018 & 20 SymbioticA artist residency, Perth, Australia
• 2016–20 Embedded Faculty Researcher, Arts + Design Research…
• 2019 Best of Show, radius250, artspace, Richmond, VA
• 2018 Faculty Research Grant, College of Arts and Architectur…