Abdool Al-Khaledi

I am a PhD candidate in the Language and Genetics Department at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, working within the Imaging Genetics group under the supervision of Clyde Francks and Simon Fisher, with co-supervision from Andre Marquand of the Predictive Clinical Neuroscience group at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging. My research explores how genetic susceptibility to psychiatric conditions shapes the neural and cognitive systems underlying experience and language.

I completed a BSc in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Creative Writing at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, before pursuing an MSc in Bioinformatics and Biocomplexity at Utrecht University, where I focused on neurogenetics and computational approaches in the context of Autism spectrum disorder and Alzheimer’s disease.

I have long been fascinated by the brain as a dynamical system. A space where molecular, cellular, and cognitive layers of information processing intertwine to generate the phenomena we call the human condition. Drawing on my multidisciplinary background in the arts and sciences, I aim to bridge molecular genetics and neuroimaging to better understand how patterns in biology give rise to patterns in thought.