Matthew Kayser, MD, PhD,

Dr. Matthew Kayser, M.D, Ph.D., is Karl E Rickels Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Penn. He received his ScB in Neuroscience from Brown University and earned his MD/PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. He then pursued a residency in psychiatry and maintains a clinical focus on issues at the intersection of sleep and mental illness. Work in Dr. Kayser’s laboratory centers on improving our understanding of how sleep abnormalities contribute to neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disease. In particular, he uses the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to study how early life experiences impact neural circuit development and behaviors. Work in Dr. Kayser’s laboratory has demonstrated that sleep in early adulthood is required for sculpting neural circuits underlying complex behaviors. His group has identified genes regulating the development of sleep circuits, with a particular interest in the link between sleep and neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorders. Dr. Kayser currently serves as Training Director of an NIH-funded research track in the Department of Psychiatry Residency Program, and is passionate about mentoring, training, and advocating for the next generation of neuroscientists.