Nicole Zürcher, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, a faculty member at the A. A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and the Director of Human Imaging in the Chemical Neuroscience Program. She is Faculty at the MGH Lurie Center for Autism and Lurie Center for Autism Director of Neuroimaging. With a background in neuroscience and imaging, she is an expert in simultaneous positron emission tomography-magnetic resonance imaging. The major focus of her work is on autism spectrum disorder and socio-emotional behavior.
Education
PhD in Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Select Publications
1. Tseng CJ, Canales C, Marcus RE, Parmar AJ, Hightower BG, Mullett JE, Makary MM, Tassone AU, Saro HK, Townsend PH, Birtwell K, Nowinski L, Thom RP, Palumbo ML, Keary C, Catana C, McDougle CJ, Hooker JM, Zürcher NR. In vivo translocator protein in females with autism spectrum disorder: a pilot study. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2024. PMID: 38615126.
2. Tseng CJ, Mc Dougle CJ, Hooker JM, Zürcher NR. Epigenetics of autism spectrum disorder: histone deacetylases. Biological Psychiatry. 2021. PMID 35120709.
3. Zürcher NR, Loggia ML, Mullett JE, Tseng CJ, Bhanot A, Richey L, Hightower BG, Wu C, Parmar AJ, Butterfield RI, Dubois JM, Chonde DB, Izquierdo-Garcia D, Wey HY, Catana C, Hadjikhani N, McDougle CJ, Hooker JM. [11C]PBR28 MR-PET imaging reveals lower regional brain expression of translocator protein (TSPO) in young adult males with autism spectrum disorder. Molecular Psychiatry. 2021. PMID: 32076115
4. Gilbert TM*, Zürcher NR*, Catanese MC, Tseng CJ, Di Biase MA, Lyall AE, Hightower BG, Parmar AJ, Bhanot A, Wu CJ, Hibert ML, Kim M, Mahmood U, Stufflebeam SM, Schroeder FA, Wang C, Roffman JL, Holt DJ, Greve DN, Pasternak O, Kubicki M, Wey HY, Hooker JM. Neuroepigenetic signatures of age and sex in the living human brain. Nature Communications. 2019. PMID: 31270332.
Highlights
2025: Rising Mentor Award, Massachusetts General Hospital
2022: R01 from the National Institute of Mental Health
2022: Career Development Award, Autism Research Program, Department of Defense
2021: Travel Award, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology