Associate Researcher, Psychiatry & Human Behavior
School of Medicine

Genetics Depression Neuroanatomy Suicide Molecular Biology

www.faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6968

Della Martin Fellow 2006-2011

Dr. Sequeira is an Associate Research Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of California, Irvine, specializing in the neurobiology and genetics of neuropsychiatric disorders. His research focuses on uncovering the molecular mechanisms underlying depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, with a particular emphasis on identifying peripheral biomarkers for suicide risk prediction and prevention. With extensive expertise in neuroanatomy and multi-omics analyses of both brain and blood, Dr. Sequeira has conducted comprehensive studies using post-mortem human tissue to identify molecular changes associated with psychiatric disorders. His contributions include a key role in the development of the Allen Human Brain Atlas and extensive work with brain banks at McGill University, Douglas Hospital, and UC Irvine. His current research integrates cell-type-specific gene expression, epigenomics, synaptic structural changes, and targeted metabolomics to elucidate the neurobiological alterations in major depressive disorder (MDD) and suicide, aiming to advance the understanding of suicide risk and inform novel prevention strategies.

Scientific Advisor-American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)
2025 IASR/AFSP International Summit on Suicide Research Program Committee
Associate Editor: Journal of Psychiatric Research, Frontiers in Genetics -Behavioral and Psychiatric Genetics
2024 Grant Reviewer: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)
2023 Grant Reviewer: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)
2019 Reviewer, UC MEXUS-CONACYT Review Committee
2017 Reviewer, UC MEXUS-CONACYT Review Committee
2016 Reviewer, NIMH Neural Basis of Psychopathology, Addictions and Sleep Disorders (NPAS) Study Section
2015 Reviewer, NIMH Neural Basis of Psychopathology, Addictions and Sleep Disorders (NPAS) Study Section
2009 NARSAD-Young Investigator Award
2009 Brain Star Award, Canadian Institutes of Health Research
2008 Travel Award, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
2006 Della Martin Fellowship, Psychiatry and Human Behavior, UCI
2006 Brain Star Award, Canadian Institutes of Health Research
2005 Best abstract-oral presentation, Montréal Microarray Symposium
2004 Best Poster Award, Montréal Microarray Symposium
2002 PhD Scholarship, Québec Health Research Fund
2002 Second place poster, Mental Health Network Meeting
2001 Training Award, Suicide Axis, Québec Health Research Award

Universite du Quebec, Montreal BSc 1998 Molecular biology
Montreal University, Montreal MSc 2001 Neurosciences
McGill University, Montreal PhD 2007 Human Genetics
University of California, Irvine Post-doc 2011 Psychiatry and Human Behavior

Mamdani F, Rollins B, Morgan L, Myers RM, Barchas JD, Schatzberg AF, Watson SJ, Akil H, Potkin SG, Bunney WE, Vawter MP, Sequeira PA. Variable telomere length across post-mortem human brain regions and specific reduction in the hippocampus of major depressive disorder. Transl Psychiatry. 2016 Dec 6;6(12):e969. doi: 10.1038/tp.2015.164. PMID: 27922633.

Morgan LZ, Rollins B, Sequeira A, Byerley W, DeLisi LE, Schatzberg AF, Barchas JD, Myers RM, Watson SJ, Akil H, Bunney WE Jr, Vawter MP.Quantitative Trait Locus and Brain Expression of HLA-DPA1 Offers Evidence of Shared Immune Alterations in Psychiatric Disorders. Microarrays (Basel). 2016 Mar;5(1). pii: 6. Epub 2016 Mar 7.

Limon A, Mamdani F, Hjelm BE, Vawter MP, Sequeira A. Targets of polyamine dysregulation in major depression and suicide: Activity-dependent feedback, excitability, and neurotransmission. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2016 Apr 22;66:80-91. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.04.010. [Epub ahead of print] Review.

Rollins BL, Morgan L, Hjelm BE, Sequeira A, Schatzberg AF, Barchas JD, Lee FS, Myers RM, Watson SJ, Akil H, Potkin SG, Bunney WE, Vawter MP. Mitochondrial Complex I Deficiency in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder and Medication Influence. Mol Neuropsychiatry. 2018 Feb;3(3):157-169. doi: 10.1159/000484348. Epub 2017 Nov 30. PMID: 29594135.

Gonçalves VF, Cappi C, Hagen CM, Sequeira A, Vawter MP, Derkach A, Zai CC, Hedley PL, Bybjerg-Grauholm J, Pouget JG, Cuperfain AB, Sullivan PF, Christiansen M, Kennedy JL, Sun L. A Comprehensive Analysis of Nuclear-Encoded Mitochondrial Genes in Schizophrenia. Biol Psychiatry. 2018 May 1;83(9):780-789. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2018.02.1175. Epub 2018 Mar 15. PMID: 29628042.

Rajamani U, Gross AR, Hjelm BE, Sequeira A, Vawter MP, Tang J, Gangalapudi V, Wang Y, Andres AM, Gottlieb RA, Sareen D. Super-Obese Patient-Derived iPSC Hypothalamic Neurons Exhibit Obesogenic Signatures and Hormone Responses. Cell Stem Cell. 2018 May 3;22(5):698-712.e9. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2018.03.009. Epub 2018 Apr 19.

Le-Niculescu H, Roseberry K, Levey DF, Rogers J, Kosary K, Prabha S, Jones T, Judd S, McCormick MA, Wessel AR, Williams A, Phalen PL, Mamdani F, Sequeira A, Kurian SM, Niculescu AB. Towards precision medicine for stress disorders: diagnostic biomarkers and targeted drugs. Mol Psychiatry. 2019 Mar 12. doi: 10.1038/s41380-019-0370-z. [Epub ahead of print].

Hjelm BE, Rollins B, Morgan L, Sequeira A, Mamdani F, Pereira F, Damas J, Webb MG, Weber MD, Schatzberg AF, Barchas JD, Lee FS, Akil H, Watson SJ, Myers RM, Chao EC, Kimonis V, Thompson PM, Bunney WE, Vawter MP. Splice-Break: exploiting an RNA-seq splice junction algorithm to discover mitochondrial DNA deletion breakpoints and analyses of psychiatric disorders. Nucleic Acids Res. 2019 Mar 14. pii: gkz164. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkz164. [Epub ahead of print].

Lallai V, Grimes N, Fowler JP, Sequeira PA, Cartagena P, Limon A, Nicotine Acts on Cholinergic Signaling Mechanisms to Directly Modulate Choroid Plexus Function. Coutts M, Monuki ES, Bunney W, Demuro A, Fowler CD.eNeuro. 2019 Apr 23;6(2). pii: ENEURO.0051-19.2019. doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0051-19.2019. eCollection 2019 Mar-Apr. PMID: 31119189.

Sequeira A, Shen K, Gottlieb A, Limon A. Human brain transcriptome analysis finds region- and subject-specific expression signatures of GABAAR subunits. Commun Biol. 2019 May 1;2:153. doi: 10.1038/s42003-019-0413-7. eCollection 2019. PMID: 31069263.

Limon A, Delbruck E, Yassine A, Pandya D, Myers RM, Barchas JD, Lee F, Schatzberg, Watson SJ, Akil H, Bunney WE, Vawter MP, Sequeira A. Electrophysiological evaluation of extracellular spermine and alkaline pH on synaptic human GABAA receptors. Transl Psychiatry. 2019 Sep 5;9(1):218. doi: 10.1038/s41398-019-0551-1. PMID: 31488811.

Anderson AG, Moyers BA, Loupe JM, Rodriguez-Nunez I, Felker SA, Lawlor JMJ, Bunney WE, Bunney BG, Cartagena PM, Sequeira A, Watson SJ, Akil H, Mendenhall EM, Cooper GM, Myers RM. Allele-specific transcription factor binding across human brain regions offers mechanistic insight into eQTLs. Genome Res. 2024 Sep 20;34(8):1224-1234. doi: 10.1101/gr.278601.123.PMID: 39152038.

Loupe JM, Anderson AG, Rizzardi LF, Rodriguez-Nunez I, Moyers B, Trausch-Lowther K, Jain R, Bunney WE, Bunney BG, Cartagena P, Sequeira A, Watson SJ, Akil H, Cooper GM, Myers RM. Multiomic profiling of transcription factor binding and function in human brain. Nat Neurosci. 2024 Jul;27(7):1387-1399. doi:10.1038/s41593-024-01658-8. Epub 2024 Jun 3. PMID: 38831039

Watson KT, Keller J, Spiro CM, Satz IB, Goncalves SV, Pankow H, Kosti I, Lehallier B, Sequeira A, Bunney WE, Rasgon NL, Schatzberg AF. Proteomic profiles of cytokines and chemokines in moderate to severe depression: Implications for comorbidities and biomarker discovery. Brain Behav Immun Health. 2024 Feb 7;36:100731. doi: 10.1016/j.bbih.2024.100731. eCollection 2024 Mar. PMID: 38435722

Omidsalar AA, McCullough CG, Xu L, Boedijono S, Gerke D, Webb MG, Manojlovic Z, Sequeira A, Lew MF, Santorelli M, Serrano GE, Beach TG, Limon A, Vawter MP, Hjelm BE. Common mitochondrial deletions in RNA-Seq: evaluation of bulk, single-cell, and spatial transcriptomic datasets. Commun Biol. 2024 Feb 17;7(1):200. doi: 10.1038/s42003-024-05877-4. PMID: 38368460

Moyers BA, Loupe JM, Felker SA, Lawlor JMJ, Anderson AG, Rodriguez-Nunez I, Bunney WE, Bunney BG, Cartagena PM, Sequeira A, Watson SJ, Akil H, Mendenhall EM, Cooper GM, Myers RM. Allele biased transcription factor binding across human brain regions gives mechanistic insight into eQTLs. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2023 Oct 9:2023.10.06.561245. doi: 10.1101/2023.10.06.561245. PMID: 37873117

Mamdani F, Sequeira A. Blood-based biomarkers for suicide in depression: moving a step closer to prediction. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2023 Jan;48(1):245-246. doi: 10.1038/s41386-022-01391-5. PMID: 35882924

Hjelm B.E. · Ramiro C. · Rollins B.L. · Omidsalar A.A. · Gerke D.S. · Das S.C. · Sequeira A. · Morgan L. · Schatzberg A.F. · Barchas J.D. · Lee F.S. · Myers R.M. · Watson S.J. · Akil H. · Bunney W.E. · Vawter M.P. Large common mitochondrial DNA deletions are associated with a mitochondrial SNP T14798C near the 3' breakpoints. Complex Psychiatry. Published online: November 14, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1159/000528051

Stein RA, Mamdani F, Bunney B, Cartagena P, Vawter MP, Schatzberg A, Jack BD, Francis LS, Myers RM, Watson SJ, Akil H, Bunney WE, Sequeira A. Overexpression of Cancer- and Neurotransmitter-Associated Genes in the Nucleus Accumbens of Smokers. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2022 October. doi: 10.1101/2022.09.30.22280587.

Das SC, Hjelm BE, Rollins BL, Sequeira A, Morgan L, Omidsalar AA, Schatzberg AF, Barchas JD, Lee FS, Myers RM, Watson SJ, Akil H, Bunney WE, Vawter MP. Mitochondria DNA copy number, mitochondria DNA total somatic deletions, Complex I activity, synapse number, and synaptic mitochondria number are altered in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Transl Psychiatry. 2022 Aug 30;12(1):353. doi: 10.1038/s41398-022-02127-1. PMID: 36042222.

Mamdani F, Weber MD, Bunney B, Burke K, Cartagena P, Walsh D, Lee FS, Barchas J, Schatzberg AF, Myers RM, Watson SJ, Akil H, Vawter MP, Bunney WE, Sequeira A. Identification of potential blood biomarkers associated with suicide in major depressive disorder. Transl Psychiatry. 2022 Apr 14;12(1):159. doi: 10.1038/s41398-022-01918-w.PMID: 35422091.

Zeppillo T, Schulmann A, Macciardi F, Hjelm BE, Föcking M, Sequeira PA, Guella I, Cotter D, Bunney WE, Limon A, Vawter MP. Functional impairment of cortical AMPA receptors in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 2020 Jun 5;. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2020.03.037. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 32513544.

Scaduto P, Sequeira A, Vawter MP, Bunney W, Limon A. Preservation of global synaptic excitatory to inhibitory ratio during long postmortem intervals. Sci Rep. 2020 May 25;10(1):8626. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-65377-3. PubMed PMID: 32451470; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7248056.

Le-Niculescu H, Roseberry K, Levey DF, Rogers J, Kosary K, Prabha S, Jones T, Judd S, McCormick MA, Wessel AR, Williams A, Phalen PL, Mamdani F, Sequeira A, Kurian SM, Niculescu AB. Towards precision medicine for stress disorders: diagnostic biomarkers and targeted drugs. Mol Psychiatry. 2020 May;25(5):918-938. doi: 10.1038/s41380-019-0370-z. Epub 2019 Mar 12. PubMed PMID: 30862937; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7192849.

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (4/1/2020-3/21/2022): Comparison of brain and blood suicide signatures: From mechanisms to biomarkers. Role: Principal Investigator Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program of California (TRDRP) High Impact Pilot Award (2019-2021): Smoking in Bipolar Disorder: Contribution of Genomics and Sensory Gating. Role: Co-Investigator National Institute of Mental Health (2/1/17-1/31/19): Multidimensional Analysis of Synaptic Dysfunction In Schizophrenia. R21 MH113177. Role: Co-Investigator. National Institute of Mental Health (12/15/15-11/30/20): Mitochondrial Dysfunction In Schizophrenia. R01 MH097082. Role: Co-Investigator. National Institute of Mental Health (07/05/12 – 04/30/16): Metallothioneins and polyamines in major depression and suicide. R01 MH097082. Role: Principal Investigator. Pritzker Family Philanthropic Fund (02/01/16 - 01/31/21). Role: Co-Investigator National Institute of Mental Health (07/01/09 - 03/31/13): Mitochondrial Abnormalities in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. No-cost extension R01 MH-08580. Role: Co- Investigator. Allen Institute for Brain Science: Human Transcriptome Map (2008-2013). Role: Co-Principal Investigator. Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (NARSAD)(01/01/10-12/31/12): Young Investigator Award. Role: Principal Investigator. Della Martin Foundation (2006-2-11): Fellowship, Department of Psychiatry and human behavior.

American Foundation for suicide prevention-Blue Sky Focus Grant: Identification and Validation of Brain Relevant Blood-Based Biomarkers for Suicide in Major Depressive Disorder

Project Scientist
UCI 2011—2015

Lecturer, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, School of Biological Sciences. BIO SCI 93. From DNA to Organisms.
UCI 2016—2018

Assistant Research Professor
UCI 2014—2021

Associate Research Professor
UCI 2021

Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disease Research Foundation

Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6968

Last updated
03/03/2025