Institute for Behavioral Genetics (IBG)

IBG at CU Boulder is hiring 2-3 tenure-track faculty (junior or senior) in statistical genetics, twin/family designs, and computational work. A chance to help shape IBG for decades. Starts fall 2027. More info: colorado.edu/ibg/. Apply by Oct 15. Please repost!

colorado.eduHome

t.cohttps://doi.org/10.1037/adb0001152

27 May

📰🚨New paper led by IBG members @lydiarader.bsky.social and @dangustavson.bsky.social reports findings that music engagement at age 12 predicts less alcohol/substance use 5–11 years later, with twin models pointing to protective shared environments rather than direct effects: t.co/lDThoaNr5G

27 May

Congratulations also to other IBG co-authors Naomi Friedman, Mike Stallings, and Chandra Reynolds! The study specifically utilized the Colorado Longitudinal Twin 🧬 sample to produce these valuable findings. Great work!! 🏆

nature.comOxycodone self-administration and genetic background exert community-specific effects in the gut microbiome - Scientific ReportsThe gut microbiome and genetic factors contribute to several opioid-related phenotypes in humans and animal models. Here, we examined the effects of genetic background and oxycodone self-administratio...

27 Apr

New Scientific Reports article lead by IBG graduate student @eamonnduffy.bsky.social and faculty member Marissa Ehringer finds genetically divergent rat strains differ in oxycodone self-administration and effects on gut microbiome. Congrats to the team on this work! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

colorado.eduStudents create better ways to communicate scienceIn a program with Northglenn High School students, Institute for Behavioral Genetics researchers ask for creative and innovative ideas on how to talk about

13 Apr

Congratulations to IBG members Ana Howard and Dan Gustavson who partnered with students from Northglenn High School to engage community partners and make research more meaningful and engaging. You can read more about this great program here: www.colorado.edu/asmagazine/2...

13 Apr

This work was supported by a Public & Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES) grant and is part of a larger research study called Comunidad, which is centered at IBG but has collaborators across the CU Boulder campus and at Washington University.

New Nature Communications paper from IBG graduate student Jeremy Lawrence describes high genetic overlap across 73 physical illnesses (e.g., cancers, heart failure, pneumonia) and internalizing, substance use, and neurodevelopment disorders.🧬 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Additional IBG co-authors include @isyfoote.bsky.social, @breunigsophie.bsky.social, @lukas-schaffer.bsky.social, and @andrewgrotzinger.bsky.social. Congratulations to Jeremy and the rest of the team on getting this comprehensive piece of work out!

colorado.eduMental, physical illnesses often go hand in hand. Genetic study helps explain whyAn analysis of DNA from two million people shows that that the same genetic architecture that underlies things like depression, ADHD and substance abuse also

Also see this write-up in CU Boulder today about the article: www.colorado.edu/today/2026/0...

On average, the genetic correlations for ADHD, major depression, and PTSD with physical illness were higher than the correlations of physical illnesses with one another. The authors posit that this questions the historical (putative) dichotomy often made between psychiatric and physical outcomes.

doi.orgGenetic overlap of chronic pain, musculoskeletal‐specific pain, substance use disorders and substance use consumption: Common addiction and substance‐specific effectsBackground and aims Chronic pain and substance use disorders frequently co-occur and may share general addiction-related and substance-specific genetic pathways. Additionally, substance consumption ...

23 Mar

New article published in Addiction and lead by IBG postdoc @lydiarader.bsky.social identifies transdiagnostic genetic overlap between general chronic pain and addiction risk, along with substance-specific pathways. doi.org/10.1111/add....

23 Mar

Co-authors include IBG members Katerina Zorina-Lichtenwalter, Michael Stallings, and Naomi Friedman. Congratulations to the entire team on this important work parsing the disorder-specific and transdiagnostic genetic pathways across addiction and chronic pain! 🏆

nature.comMapping the genetic landscape across 14 psychiatric disorders - NatureGenomic analyses applied to 14 childhood- and adult-onset psychiatric disorders identifies five underlying genomic factors that explain the majority of the genetic variance of the individual disorders...

10 Dec 2025

New paper out today in Nature from IBG faculty @andrewgrotzinger.bsky.social and the PGC Cross-Disorder Group. They take a multi-method approach to parse shared and unique genetic signal across >5 million controls and >1 million cases for 14 psychiatric disorders www.nature.com/articles/s41...

2 Dec 2025

IBG is saying a fond farewell to former postdoc @isyfoote.bsky.social. Isy was an invaluable asset to the institute in her time here. She is a Wellcome Trust Fellow and new faculty Queen Mary University of London. We can't wait to see what comes next for this exceptionally bright scholar 🧠🧬!

colorado.edu'Jump scare' science: Study explains how the brain responds to fearResearchers have identified a brain circuit that helps animals swiftly respond to perceived threats—and dial down that response when they learn there’s no real

27 Oct 2025

Check out this write-up in CU Boulder Today about IBG Faculty Member @molaslab.bsky.social and graduate student Elora Williams recent study published in Molecular Psychiatry on the brain's response to fear: www.colorado.edu/today/2025/1...

jobs.colorado.eduAssistant Professor

29 Sept 2025

University of Colorado Boulder Department of Psychology & Neuroscience is searching for TWO tenure track assistant professors. This is open to all department areas, including Behavioral, Psychiatric, and Statistical Genetics🧬 jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...

29 Sept 2025

Successful applicants will have teaching interest in undergraduate research methods and/or statistics.

colorado.eduEmbracing excellence: CU Boulder honors postdocs and mentors during National Postdoc Appreciation WeekEach year, CU Boulder joins institutions nationwide to recognize the pivotal work of postdoctoral scholars during National Postdoc Appreciation Week.

19 Sept 2025

Congratulations to IBG Research Professor Dr. Daniel Gustavson for receiving honorable mention as an outstanding postdoc mentor at CU Boulder. Congrats Dan! www.colorado.edu/postdoctoral...

nature.comInterpeduncular GABAergic neuron function controls threat processing and innate defensive adaptive learning - Molecular PsychiatryMolecular Psychiatry - Interpeduncular GABAergic neuron function controls threat processing and innate defensive adaptive learning

8 Aug 2025

Be sure to check out this new publication from @molaslab.bsky.social!!!

Susanna Molas@molaslab.bsky.social

🎊So excited to share our new publication! We identified a novel circuit underlying threat processing and adaptive learning. Deeply grateful to @bbrfoundation.bsky.social and all the co-authors who made this possible! @ibg.colorado.edu @umasschan.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comUncovering the multivariate genetic architecture of frailty with genomic structural equation modeling - Nature GeneticsMultivariate genome-wide association analyses of the latent genetic architecture of frailty identify one general factor of genetic overlap across all frailty deficits and six factors indexing a shared...

6 Aug 2025

New work in Nature Genetics from IBG members lead by @isyfoote.bsky.social (along with @andrewgrotzinger.bsky.social) examining different measures of frailty using Genomic SEM. Findings reveal six genomic factors with unique biological pathways and clinical correlates. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.comExamining the genetic links between clusters of immune-mediated diseases and psychiatric disorders - Translational PsychiatryTranslational Psychiatry - Examining the genetic links between clusters of immune-mediated diseases and psychiatric disorders

21 July 2025

Check out this new work from IBG graduate student @breunigsophie.bsky.social that applies Genomic SEM to examine the relationship between genomic factors for immune-mediated diseases and psychiatric disorders. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

theceomagazine.comMassimo Ruzzene, Senior Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Colorado BoulderAs the Senior Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Colorado Boulder, Massimo Ruzzene is out to transform its world-leading research in quantum, space, climate and health in...

9 Apr 2025

🚨📰Check out new CEO magazine interview with Senior Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation Massimo Ruzzene on his vision for “research to real-world impact” at CU Boulder and the ways our campus reflects a flagship research university: www.theceomagazine.com/business/exe...

11 Dec 2024

🚨📰New paper from IBG Member Dr. Chandra Reynolds and collaborators that finds prolonged sitting impacts heart health and aging in the Colorado Adoption/Twin Study of Lifespan behavioral development and cognitive aging (CATSLife), even in young adults: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

colorado.eduProlonged sitting can sabotage health, even if you’re young and activeBetween long commutes, Zoom-packed workdays and evenings of streaming and scrolling, millennials now spend more than 60 hours per week sitting, potentially

11 Dec 2024

A write up in CU Boulder Today can also be found here: colorado.edu/today/2024/1.... Congrats to Dr. Reynolds and the rest of this team on this important piece of work!

colorado.eduDetecting cognitive decline before its symptoms startIn his research on the brain, Daniel Gustavson looks for clues about when cognitive decline beginsAccording to Daniel Gustavson, assistant research professor in

15 Nov 2024

Check out this University of Colorado newsletter that describes work being done by IBG faculty member @dangustavson.bsky.social using the VETSA twin dataset to examine genetic and environmental influences on cognitive decline. www.colorado.edu/asmagazine/2...

nature.comThe importance of family-based sampling for biobanks - NatureThis Perspective discusses the strengths and limitations of future biobank sampling strategies based on oversampling close relatives as opposed to the current population-based approach.

24 Oct 2024

📰 New paper out in Nature senior-authored by IBG director Matt Keller describing the scientific value of family-based sampling in biobanks. This includes estimating direct genetic effects 🧬 that have causal interpretation. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govCharacterizing genetic pathways unique to autism spectrum disorder at multiple levels of biological analysisAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by atypical patterns of social functioning and repetitive/restricted behaviors. ASD commonly co-occurs with ADHD and, des...

24 Oct 2024

🚨Check out this new molecular autism article first-authored by IBG graduate student @lukas-schaffer.bsky.social that examines the genetic signal unique to autism spectrum disorder when removing genetic overlap with ADHD. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

24 Oct 2024

📰Results reveal that the genetic signal unique to autism spectrum disorder significantly overlaps with internalizing disorders and cognitive traits, along with functional annotations and genes associated with this signal. 🧬

9 Oct 2024

🚨Check out this recent paper 📰 from IBG graduate student Lydia Rader that finds chronic pain in young adults is related to updating working memory deficits and and that the relationship appears genetic 🧬https://journals.lww.com/pain/fulltext/9900/chronic_pain_is_specifically_associated_with.675.aspx

jobs.colorado.eduTenure Track Assistant Professorship focused on Neurodegeneration at the Institute for Behavioral Genetics

30 Sept 2024

🚨IBG is hiring for a Tenure Track Assistant Professor! Candidates should have a background in neurogenetics, high-content genomics, experience with iPSC-derived neurons and glia and neural organoids, and expertise in neurodegeneration. More details here: jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...

t.cohttps://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcolorado.avature.net%2Fltrk%2FeyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6NjM2MTAyLCJoYXNoIjoiMGQ0NTBiMDdkNDNiYWM3MmY2MGYwYTliZDU2NmY2...

27 Sept 2024

IBG is taking applications for our next Director of Finance and Administration. This position coordinates and supervises the administrative, financial, and research activities of the Institute. Applications are due by October 13, 2024. For more information, please see link below: t.co/UgfpXXpNz4