Dr. Michelle Luciano

Biography

Michelle Luciano is a Personal Chair in Behavioural Genetics at the University of Edinburgh, where she focuses on twin family modeling to investigate the relative influence of genetic and environmental factors on behavior. Her research employs genome-wide association techniques for gene discovery and delves into the effects of rare structural genetic variants and gene methylation within biological pathways. She is particularly interested in the interactions between measured environmental variables and genes. As co-chair of the UK Specific Learning Difficulties Network, she contributes to discussions and research on learning difficulties. Luciano is actively involved in undergraduate teaching, specifically in the Behavioural Genetics Psychology Honours option course, which she plans to run in the academic year 2025/26. She is open to supervising PhD students and has a number of current and past students, with her research examining environmental genetic factors that impact cognition, personality, mood, and well-being, utilizing brain MRI measures.

Research Interests

Experience