Oscar Harari

Oscar Harari

Associate Professor of Psychiatry

Education & Training


  • Postdoctoral Training: Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 2013
  • PhD: Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence: University of Granada, Spain, 2009
  • BS: Computer Science: University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1999

Key Publications


    • Harari O, & Cruchaga C; Paving the road for the study of epigenetics in neurodegenerative diseases Acta Neuropathol. 2016 Sept. 132: 483. doi:10.1007/s00401-016-1614-5
    • Harari O, Cruchaga C, Kauwe JS, Ainscough BJ, Bales K, Pickering EH, Bertelsen S, Fagan AM, Holtzman DM, Morris JC, Goate AM; Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Phosphorylated tau-Aß42 ratio as a continuous trait for biomarker discovery for early-stage Alzheimer’s disease in multiplex immunoassay panels of cerebrospinal fluid. Biol Psychiatry. 2014 May
    • . Cruchaga C, Kauwe JSK, Harari O, Jin SC, Cai Y, Karch CM, Benitez B, Jeng AT, Skorupa T, Carrell D, Bertelsen S, Bailey M, McKean D, Shulman JM, De Jager PL, Chibnik L, Bennett DA, Fagan AN, Holtzman DM, Morris JC, the Alzheimer Disease Genetic Consortium (ADGC), Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), the GERAD Consortium, and Alison M. Goate. GWAS of cerebrospinal fluid tau levels identifies novel risk variants for Alzheimer’s disease. Neuron. 2013 Apr 24;78(2):256-68. PMID: 23562540. PMCID: PMC3664945
    • . Cruchaga C, Karch CM, Jin SC, Benitez BA, Cai Y, Guerreiro R, Harari O, Norton J, Budde J, Bertelsen S, Jeng AT, Cooper B, Skorupa T, Carrell D, Levitch D, Hsu S, Choi J, Ryten M; UK Brain Expression Consortium, Hardy J, Ryten M, Trabzuni D, Weale ME, Ramasamy A, Smith C, Sassi C, Bras J, Gibbs JR, Hernandez DG, Lupton MK, Powell J, Forabosco P, Ridge PG, Corcoran CD, Tschanz JT, Norton MC, Munger RG, Schmutz C, Leary M, Demirci FY, Bamne MN, Wang X, Lopez OL, Ganguli M, Medway C, Turton J, Lord J, Braae A, Barber I, Brown K; Alzheimer’s Research UK Consortium, Passmore P, Craig D, Johnston J, McGuinness B, Todd S, Heun R, Kölsch H, Kehoe PG, Hooper NM, Vardy ER, Mann DM, Pickering-Brown S, Brown K, Kalsheker N, Lowe J, Morgan K, David Smith A, Wilcock G, Warden D, Holmes C, Pastor P, Lorenzo-Betancor O, Brkanac Z, Scott E, Topol E, Morgan K, Rogaeva E, Singleton AB, Hardy J, Kamboh MI, St George-Hyslop P, Cairns N, Morris JC, Kauwe JS, Goate AM. Rare coding variants in the phospholipase D3 gene confer risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Nature. 2014
    • O Harari, J-C. Wang, K. Bucholz, H. J. Edenberg, A. Heath, N. G. Martin, M. L. Pergadia, G. Montgomery, A. Schrage, L. J. Bierut, P. F. Madden, A. M. Goate. Pathway analysis of smoking quantity in multiple GWAS identifies cholinergic and sensory pathways. PLoS ONE 2012 Dec; e50913

    Funded Research Projects


    NIA(Key Personnel):Optimizing Combinatorial GWAS of Alzheimer Disease High-throughput Data
    NIDA(Significant Contributor):Research Education Program in Aspects of Statistical Genetics and Addiction
    NIA(Significant Contributor):Identifying Rare Variants that Increase Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease
    NIA(Significant Contributor):Using Quantitative Traits to Identify Novel Genes for Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Complex Traits
    Knight ADRC(PI):Cell-free DNA and RNA as Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnostic Tools
    NIH(PI):Identification and Characterization of Genetic and Molecular Networks of Alzheimer Disease Pathology