Professor Steven McCarroll is affiliated with Harvard Medical School and engages in advanced genetic research focusing on understanding the human genome's variation among individuals. His work examines how inherited genomic variations influence neurons and microglial biology, ultimately affecting brain phenotypes related to disorders such as bipolar disorder, autism, and schizophrenia. McCarroll’s lab employs integrative strategies involving experimental, computational, and statistical approaches to explore genetic contributions to human biology. He highlights the importance of whole-genome and whole-exome sequencing in uncovering complex genomic variations that impact human health. Additionally, he is pioneering technologies like Drop-Seq, which allows profiling RNA expressions across tens of thousands of individual cells, a significant advancement for investigating brain cellular composition in disease contexts. His research also aims to delineate the genetic basis of mental illness through large-scale genetic studies aimed at identifying risk alleles and elucidating cellular aspects influenced by genetics.