Headshot of Natasha Marrus.

Natasha Marrus

Associate professor of psychiatry
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Natasha Marrus is a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist and associate professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She has more than 10 years of experience in developmental neuroimaging and applying novel phenotyping of autism-relevant behaviors in infancy to quantify their relationship to later autism outcomes.

From this contributor

Illustration of children looking at a gigantic set of building blocks, some of which display genetic sequences on their surfaces.
Spectrum

Autism is more heritable in boys than in girls

By Sneha Chaturvedi, John Constantino, Natasha Marrus, Sven Sandin, Benjamin Yip
19 September 2024 | 6 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

Basal ganglia

New phase of BRAIN Initiative spawns basal ganglia ‘parts list’

With a standardized cell naming system and infrastructure for data collection and analysis, the basal ganglia project sets the stage for a whole-brain primate atlas.

By Claudia López Lloreda
12 November 2026 | 1 min watch
Research image showing genes containing microexons in mice.
Spectrum

Machine-learning model spots autism-linked variants that scramble splicing

The model provides a way to investigate genetic variation in regions of the genome whose functions have been difficult to interpret.

By Giorgia Guglielmi
12 November 2026 | 4 min read
Illustration of two overlapping speech bubbles patterned with blue and pink horizontal lines on a background of pink and brown horizontal lines.
Systems neuroscience

Future of AI brain models sparks debate

Neuroscientists are divided about whether foundation models that predict brain responses will help the field understand how brains work.

By Natalia Mesa
11 November 2026 | 10 min read