Sofia Lizarraga

About

Dr. Sofia B. Lizarraga is a molecular biologist originally from Peru who completed her PhD at Johns Hopkins University, where she studied the assembly of the mitotic spindle under the mentorship of Dr. Yixian Zheng. Her fascination with the cytoskeleton's role in neuronal development led her to pursue postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School with Dr. Christopher A. Walsh. Continuing her focus on neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly autism, she worked as an investigator with Dr. Eric M. Morrow at Brown University. Dr. Lizarraga established her independent research group at the University of South Carolina, where she developed a research program centered on chromatin regulatory mechanisms in human brain development. In early 2023, she relocated her laboratory to Brown University, where she was promoted with tenure to Associate Professor of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology & Biochemistry in 2025. Her laboratory is based at the Center for Translational Neuroscience. Outside of her scientific pursuits, Dr. Lizarraga enjoys art, the ocean, and foreign films.

Research topics

• Biology
• Cell biology
• Neuroscience
• Genetics
• Biochemistry
• Chemistry
• Medicine

Selected publications

• Dysregulation of the chromatin environment leads to differential alternative splicing as a mechanism of disease in a human model of autism spectrum disorder

  Human Molecular Genetics · 2023-01-09 · 15 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects 1 in 44 children. Chromatin regulatory proteins are overrepresented among genes that contain high risk variants in ASD. Disruption of the chromatin environment leads to widespread dysregulation of gene expression, which is traditionally thought of as a mechanism of disease pathogenesis associated with ASD. Alternatively, alterations in chromatin dynamics could also lead to dysregulation of alternative splicing, which is understudied as a mechanism of ASD pa…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Neuroimmune mechanisms in autism etiology - untangling a complex problem using human cellular models

  Oxford Open Neuroscience · 2024-01-01 · 12 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects 1 in 36 people and is more often diagnosed in males than in females. Core features of ASD are impaired social interactions, repetitive behaviors and deficits in verbal communication. ASD is a highly heterogeneous and heritable disorder, yet its underlying genetic causes account only for up to 80% of the cases. Hence, a subset of ASD cases could be influenced by environmental risk factors. Maternal immune activation (MIA) is a response to inflammation during…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The power of human stem cell-based systems in the study of neurodevelopmental disorders

  Current Opinion in Neurobiology · 2024-09-17 · 8 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) affect 15% of children and are usually associated with intellectual disability, seizures, and autistic behaviors, among other neurological presentations. Mutations in a wide spectrum of gene families alter key stages of human brain development, leading to defects in neural circuits or brain architecture. Studies in animal systems have provided important insights into the pathobiology of several NDDs. Human stem cell technologies provide a complementary system…

  PublisherDOI

• Tyrosine and Phenylalanine Activate Neuronal <scp>DNA</scp> Repair but Exhibit Opposing Effects on Global Transcription and Adult Female Mice Are Resilient to <scp>TyrRS</scp>/<scp>YARS1</scp> Depletion

  IUBMB Life · 2025-06-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Serum tyrosine and phenylalanine levels increase during aging and age-associated disorders. We previously showed that tyrosyl-tRNA synthetase (TyrRS/YARS1) is reduced in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) brains, and tyrosine and phenylalanine decrease TyrRS in neurons. Here, we found that tau is a negative regulator, whereas estrogen and leucine act as positive regulators of TyrRS. Young female mice exhibit increased TyrRS in the cortex compared to male mice. Notably, young Tau knockout male, but not fem…

  PublisherDOI

• The intersection of inflammation and DNA damage as a novel axis underlying the pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorders

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2024-12-11

  preprintOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) affects 1 in 36 children and is characterized by repetitive behaviors and difficulties in social interactions and social communication. The etiology of ASD is extremely heterogeneous, with a large number of ASD cases that are of unknown or complex etiology, which suggests the potential contribution of epigenetic risk factors. In particular, epidemiological and animal model studies suggest that inflammation during pregnancy could lead to an increased risk of ASD in…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Dietary Supplements and Inflammation Phase-2: Isoxanthohumol as a treatment for estrogen-deficient-induced visceral hyperalgesia.

  NIH · $37.0M · 2012–2025

Frequent coauthors

• Eric M. Morrow

  Bradley Hospital

  52 shared

• Andrew Wilde

  Canada Research Chairs

  39 shared

• Christiane Wiese

  33 shared

• Yixian Zheng

  Carnegie Institution for Science

  29 shared

• M Schmidt

  Brown University

  27 shared

• Ece D. Gamsiz Uzun

  John Brown University

  20 shared

• Lijun Zhang

  Beijing Anzhen Hospital

  20 shared

• Christopher A. Walsh

  Boston Children's Hospital

  20 shared

Labs

• Lizarraga LaboratoryPI

  Focus on the role of the cytoskeleton in neuronal development and neurodevelopmental disorders, with a focus on autism.

Education

• Ph.D.

  John Hopkins University

  2003

• B.S.

  University of Connecticut

  1996

Similar researchers at Brown University

• Federica Accorneroh-37
• Ellen McCreedyh-30
• Kereen Coulombeh-29