Tenure-Track Faculty Cluster Hire

IBG is recruiting 2-3 faculty (Assistant or Associate/Full) in statistical genetics, twin and family designs, and computational research. Start date fall 2027. Applications received by October 15, 2026 receive full consideration.

Announcement

Chandra泭Reynolds

  • Professor
  • INSTITUTE FOR BEHAVIORAL GENETICS
  • PSYCHOLOGY & NEUROSCIENCE
Address

Institute for Behavioral Genetics
勒貊勛圖
447 UCB
勒貊勛圖, CO 80309-0447

Research Interests:

My research interests focus on life span development and aging, particularly the coaction and interplay of genes and environments on cognitive aging and the risk of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). I engage in longitudinal research, often of twins and adoptees, to examine how and why individuals differ in early life contexts and behavioral health pathways across time and their effects on cognitive functioning. Cognitive resilience in the face of genetic and environmental risks is a current direction of interest. In addition to participating in the international Interplay of Genes and Environment Across Multiple Studies (IGEMS) consortia, and the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA), I am the contact PI of the Colorado Adoption/Twin Study of Lifespan behavioral development and cognitive aging (CATSLife).

Active Grants:

  • 1R21AG087486 (Luczak) 12/2024 11/2026. Implications of midlife alcohol use for risk of dementia in male and female twins: Unique contributions and interactions with APOE4. Role: Co-investigator
  • R01DA059804 (Gustavson) 08/15/2024- 5/31/2029. Establishing if Music Engagement is a Protective Factor in Adolescent Substance Use Using Existing Longitudinal, Genetic, and Environmental Datasets. Role: Co-investigator
  • R01AG089666 (Reynolds, Neiderhiser) 08/01/2024 04/30/2029. Gene-environment interplay among modifiable factors for AD/ADRD: risk and resilience across the lifespan. Role: Principal investigator, Contact
  • 1R01AG081248 (Finch, Finkel, Gatz, MPI) 04/2024 03/2029. Country, cohort, and gender disparities in the relationship between education and ADRD. Role: Co-investigator
  • AFAR Application #HEV~NI23013 (Evans) 12/2023 12/2026. Gene-Gene Interaction Associations with Frailty to Identify Core Genes of Aging and Their Biological Context. Role: Co-investigator.

Additional Resources:

Reynolds Current Lab

Publications

Reynolds Highlighted Publications

Our study examines how subjective memory ratings align with objectively measured memory performance in CATSLife1 adults aged 2851 using smartphone-based ambulatory assessments. We found that better initial memory and improvement over time predict higher subjective memory ratings, while momenttomoment variability did not meaningfully relate to subjective impressions.

(Innovations in Aging, 2025)

Nearly 60 lifestyle and psychological traits were evaluated with cognitive functioning in established adulthood in CATSLife using robust and cotwin-control methods. Results 泭revealed that an appreciation for cognitive complexity and a sense of purpose in life may be protective to cognitive functioning, controlling for genetic and environmental confounds, in addition to the well-known risk from smoking.

(Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, 2024)

Using the CATSLife sample, we developed a frailty index with sibling similarity patterns suggesting that moderate genetic influences contribute to frailty differences in early adulthood. Moreover, frailty is associated with worse performance on the Digit Symbol Substitution Subtest, a processing speed task evidencing increasingly stronger associations at higher ages. Thus, even in adults approaching midlife, an understudied period within lifespan development, indicators of vulnerability to stress as indexed by frailty are associated with processing speed and warrant additional longitudinal investigation.

(The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2023)

Using data from the IGEMS consortium, we observed that for Semantic Fluency and Episodic Memory tasks, genetic influences contribute to cognitive function at shorter sleep durations (4 hours) to a greater degree than at longer sleep durations (10 hours), consistent with prior work in the field suggesting that short sleep may be associated with an upregulation of neuroinflammatory processes and ineffective beta-amyloid clearance.

(Sleep, 2022)

The first report to include polygenic scores for Alzheimer's disease (AD) simultaneously in a biometrical twin model of AD risk in Swedish twins. APOE accounts for much of the measured polygenic contribution with substantial background genetic influences still to be understood.

(Brain Communications, 2022)