Sundari Chetty PhD

Sundari Chetty, PhD, is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a principal faculty member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Her laboratory uses human pluripotent stem cells, brain organoids, and iPSC-derived neural cells to study the mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. She received her PhD in neuroscience and BA in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley, and completed postdoctoral training in stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard. Her work aims to identify biologically grounded therapeutic targets.

This project aims to define the biological mechanisms driving disproportionate megalencephaly in autism. The study will also assess whether blood-based biomarkers can identify those changes to distinguish autism subgroups and improve understanding of the factors associated with more severe developmental outcomes.

Mattingly, Z., Chetty, S. Untangling the molecular mechanisms contributing to autism spectrum disorder using stem cells. Autism Res. 18 (3), 476-485 (2025).

Chetty, S., Shcherbina, A., Schafer, S.T., Mattingly, Z.A., Ramesh, J., Narayanan, C., et al. Elevated levels of GPX4 and resistance to ferroptosis in ASD with disproportionate megalencephaly. bioRxiv (2025).

Li J, Brickler T, Banuelos A, Chetty S., et al. Overexpression of CD47 is associated with brain overgrowth and 16p11.2 deletion syndrome. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. (2021)