Clyde Francks
Radboud University Medical Center, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, University of Oxford, GlaxoSmithKline (Italy)
Research areas: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Genetics · Genetic Associations and Epidemiology · Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience · Reading and Literacy Development
0000-0002-9098-890X
About
Prof. dr. Clyde Francks leads the Imaging Genomics research group at the Max Planck Institute, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. He is also Professor of Brain Imaging Genomics at the Medical Neuroscience Department and Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition & Behaviour at Radboud University Medical Center. His group studies the genetics of language, brain disorders and asymmetry of the brain on its left to right axis.
For most people, the left and right sides of the human brain specialise in performing different functions and processing different types of information - in fact, much of our cognition is relatively lateralized to one side or the other. Language is an excellent example of this lateralized function; in most people, several component processes are performed in the left side of the brain. Francks' research group is particularly interested in the genes that are involved in determining how the two hemispheres develop and function differently, and how these processes relate to neurodevelopmental and psychiatric traits.
Professor Francks graduated in zoology from the University of Oxford in 1996. He then moved to the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford, where he obtained his doctorate (Wellcome Trust Prize student, DPhil 2002) and stayed as a postdoctoral researcher until 2005. During these years he investigated the genetics of dyslexia and led a project on the genetics of handedness and schizophrenia. From 2005 he continued as a visiting fellow at Oxford while working as a manager in the pharmaceuticals industry (GlaxoSmithKline, Verona, Italy), during which time he led collaborative academia-industry projects on the genetics of schizophrenia and cigarette smoking. In 2010 he started in his current position at the Max Planck Institute, Nijmegen.
Employment
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Radboud University Medical Center Professor of Brain Imaging Genomics2022 - Present
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Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Research Group Leader2010 - Present
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GlaxoSmithKline (Italy) Medical Genetics Advisor, Academic Collaboration Program Coordinator2005 - 2009
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Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics Postdoctoral researcher2001 - 2005
Education
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University of Oxford D.Phil.1997 - 2001
- 1993 - 1996
Projects & Funding
Projects & funding information is unavailable.
Publications (172)
- Variations of global brain asymmetry are associated with aging and related diseases Save
- Population-wide variation in connectopic organization of cerebral language hubs Save
- Integrating brain structure and function for the neurobiology and genetics of language Save
- Evaluating the effects of archaic protein-altering variants in living human adults Save
- Structural and functional brain asymmetry in relation to heterogeneous causes of situs inversus totalis Save
- Perfect imperfections: seeking molecular and cellular asymmetries in the mouse brain Save
- Spatial and single-nucleus transcriptomic profile of a chimpanzee frontal pole Save
- The universe is asymmetric, the mouse brain too Save
- Distinct impact modes of polygenic disposition to dyslexia in the adult brain Save
- The neocortical infrastructure for language involves region-specific patterns of laminar gene expression Save
- Evaluating the effects of archaic protein-altering variants in living human adults Save
- Exome-wide analysis implicates rare protein-altering variants in human handedness Save
- Imaging genomics reveals genetic architecture of the globular human braincase Save
- Distinct impact modes of polygenic disposition to dyslexia in the adult brain Save
- The neocortical infrastructure for language involves region-specific patterns of laminar gene expression Save
- The universe is asymmetric, the mouse brain too Save
- Tracing the development and lifespan change of population-level structural asymmetry in the cerebral cortex Save
- Exome-wide analysis implicates rare protein-altering variants in human handedness Save
- Laterality indices consensus initiative (LICI): A Delphi expert survey report on recommendations to record, assess, and report asymmetry in human behavioural and brain research Save
- Large-scale analysis of structural brain asymmetries in schizophrenia via the ENIGMA consortium. Save