Research Interests
Keywords: Obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette syndrome, Exome, Genome, GWAS, De novo, RNA, transcriptome
Dr. Halvorsen’s research focuses on the role of common and rare genetic variation in psychiatric disorders, with a particular concentration on Obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette Syndrome. He is actively involved in case/control studies of these cohorts across a wide variety of genetic data (genotype array, whole exome, whole genome), that serve the purpose of identifying specific risk variation for these disorders. He has substantial experience and retains an active interest in de novo mutation studies of these cohorts, where genetic variants present in offspring but absent from both parents are detected and assessed for their potential contribution to the disorder. He is actively interested in the downstream functional effect of risk variants identified, in particular their effect on the transcriptome of the developing nervous system.
Publications
Matt Halvorsen in Genetics News

June 3, 2025
Department of Genetics Publications for April 27th – May 31st, 2025
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 42 papers during April 27th - May31st 2025.

April 20, 2025
Department of Genetics Publications for March 2nd – 29th, 2025
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 30 papers during March 2nd - 29th 2025.

November 11, 2024
Department of Genetics Publications for October 27th – November 9th, 2024
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 8 papers during October 27th - November 9th, 2024.

October 17, 2024
Department of Genetics Publications for September 29th – October 12th, 2024
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 13 papers during September 29th - October 12th, 2024.

April 29, 2024
Department of Genetics Publications for April 14th – 27th, 2024
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 12 papers during April 14th - 27th 2024.

December 4, 2023
Department of Genetics Publications for November 19th – December 2nd, 2023
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 18 papers during November 19th - December 2nd 2023.

November 19, 2023
Department of Genetics Publications for November 5th – 18th, 2023
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 5 papers during November 5th - 18th 2023.

October 9, 2023
Department of Genetics Publications for September 24th – October 7th, 2023
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 12 papers during September 24th - October 7th 2023.

August 30, 2023
Dr. Matthew Halvorsen Awarded R21 Grant from NIMH
Matthew Halvorsen, PhD (Assistant Professor, Genetics) was awarded an R21 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health for his project titled “Acceleration of risk gene discovery for Tic Disorders through large-scale collaboration”.

July 30, 2023
Department of Genetics Publications for July 16th – 29th, 2023
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 8 papers during July 16th - 29th 2023.