John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics and Co-Director of the Center for Molecular Genetics at the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics. Young is a neurobiologist interested in identifying epigenetic signatures of human genetic diseases and in establishing animal models of neurological diseases. He has a longstanding interest in neurodevelopmental disorders in general and in understanding the pathogenesis of Rett Syndrome in particular. His work includes the identification of RNA-related functions of MeCP2, mutated in Rett Syndrome and the characterization of cellular and mouse models for this disease.