As Bill Nye the Science Guy once said, "Science is a part of everyone's everyday life." Here at WashU, science may be slightly more present than Bill Nye could conceive of. "Up and Atom" aims to break it down for you -- from lab sciences to social sciences and beyond.

Dean's Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Ryan Bogdan, has earned the spot as the first spotlighted lab director. Bogdan has a Ph.D. in Clinical Science and currently directs the Behavioral Researching and Imaging Neurogenetics Lab (BRAINLab). He has been at WashU for 12 years and currently teaches Inside the Disordered Brain: Biological Bases of the Major Mental Disorders.

Bogdan discovered his passion for research due to an accident. He grew up in the rural Redwoods of Northern California and was originally a musician, studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. However, while attending Berklee, Bogdan broke his arm, terminating his music career.

After receiving the news of his injury, Bogdan transferred to Santa Clara University in California. During this time, the Human Genome Project, an international project that aimed to identify and map all the genes of the human genome, was starting to gain traction. While he doesn't think there was "one defining moment" that indicated to him that he wanted to have a career in science, this project, along with the growing popularity of neuroimaging, played a key role in sparking Bogdan's interest in the neuroscience of mental illness.

"In taking the coursework, I became fascinated in the subject matter, and it was working in a research lab that really led me to see the utility and practicality of all that I could do in a lab," Bogdan said.

Using a variety of different tools and methodologies, including twin studies, Dr. Bogdan's BRAINLab researches how biological factors and environmental experiences influence phenotypes that could dictate psychopathology presence. Biological factors may include brain structure, brain function, inflammatory markers, and genetic background, while environmental experiences may include childhood maltreatment, prenatal exposure to substances, and more.

Per Bogdan's WashU website profile, he and his team study "genomic and environmental factors associated with psychopathology risk (e.g., depression, anxiety, substance use disorder, ADHD, schizophrenia) and their biological correlates (e.g., structural brain metrics, inflammation)."

"We need to better understand the causes and mechanisms that lead to [psychopathology]," Bogdan said. "By taking it one step at a time in a more univariate fashion, eventually we'll be able to start to build these multivariate models."

Given his upbringing in an area known for cannabis cultivation, Bogdan is particularly interested in the role of prenatal substance use in psychopathology. In fact, he has published multiple papers about addiction, like "The Genetically Informed Neurobiology of Addiction (GINA) Model" and "Associations Between Prenatal Cannabis Exposure and Childhood Outcomes: Results from the ABCD study." Bogdan hopes to share his knowledge of substance disorders with curious students in a potential new course about the neuroscience of addiction.

For students interested in pursuing scientific endeavors, Bogdan emphasized the importance of research experience and the value of remaining with the same lab for more than just a few months. Working at a lab for a longer period of time will enable students to involve themselves in the science field's "grunt work" and expose themselves to "all levels of science."

"Once you know you want to pursue a career in science, it is important to read the literature obsessively about what you're working on and try to learn as much as you can...develop methodological expertise...and approach with a humbleness and being okay with not knowing things."