Dr. Arpiar Saunders

One Mind-Ben Langford and Nicholas Hall Rising Star Award

Discovering How Schizophrenia-Associated Genes Alter the Brains’ Synaptic Organization Using High-Throughput Viral Genomic Imaging. Oregon Health & Science University.

Dr. Saunders’ lab is uncovering the molecular and genomic diversity of brain cells, creating foundational tools for understanding how synaptic organization influences brain function.

Arpiar “Arpy” Saunders earned his B.A. in Biology and Linguistics from Swarthmore College in 2006. He researched wild-flower genomes at the University of Montana before moving to Harvard Medical School for doctoral and postdoctoral training. At Harvard, Saunders earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience in the lab of Bernardo Sabatini, studying the synaptic organization of the mouse brain. As a Helen Hay Whitney Fellow in Steve McCarroll’s lab, he used single-cell genomics to describe molecular diversity of brain cells. Saunders joined the Vollum Institute as an assistant scientist in 2020.