Her research focuses on developing mouse models of increased stress sensitivity related to sex-biased neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric diseases. Because women present with affective disorders at more than twice the rate of men, Dr. Bale’s research aims at defining sex differences in stress pathway development and maturation. Studies within Dr. Bale’s lab investigate the timing and sex specificity of early life events promoting disease susceptibility, the maturation of central stress pathways during key periods of development, and the epigenetic mechanisms involved in long-term effects following stress exposure.