Emily Severance, PhD
Highlights
Languages
- English
Gender
FemaleJohns Hopkins Affiliations:
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty
About Emily Severance
Primary Academic Title
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Background
Dr. Emily Severance is an associate professor of pediatrics in the Stanley Division of Developmental Neurovirology. Following her Ph.D. training at the University of South Florida, Dr. Severance received a Stanley Postdoctoral Fellowship to study the infectious disease hypothesis of psychiatric disorders at Johns Hopkins. Among her findings was a particularly elevated seroprevalence of coronaviruses in people with a recent onset of psychosis versus a non-psychiatric comparison group. This study received little attention at the time (published in 2011), but has become relevant as researchers, including Dr. Severance, prepare new investigations designed to better capture in progress the early stages of coronavirus- and other microbe-mediated roles in the development of psychiatric disorders.
In collaboration with pediatrics investigators at JH SOM and the Kennedy Krieger Institute, Dr. Severance helped launch in 2021 a prospective, longitudinal study of mental health outcomes in children receiving primary care during the pandemic. The Pediatric COVID-19 Antibody Study (PCABS) will follow children for 10 years with behavioral data and biospecimens obtained annually. The early detection of biochemically-linked stress behaviors will help better identify children at risk for anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts and behaviors, inform treatment strategies, and increase the visibility of rampant healthcare inequities as significant detractors from mental health wellness.
Dr. Severance joined the Johns Hopkins faculty as an assistant professor in 2011 and was an early proponent of studying schizophrenia as not just a brain disorder, but as one that involves multiple key systems in the body, and especially the immune system, gut-brain axis, and microbiome. Her projects have been supported by the Stanley Medical Research Institute, and as part of a NIMH P50 Schizophrenia Center grant in the JH Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Severance has been a Scott-Gentle Foundation investigator partnered through the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, where she received a Young Investigator fellowship. Dr. Severance’s research has resulted in over 75 scientific publications.
Recent News Articles and Media Coverage
- The Strange Link Between Pandemics and Psychosis, Vice (March 17, 2020)
- COVID-19 and Psychosis: Is There a Link?, MedScape(May 08, 2020)
- Patients with mood disorders may have altered microbiome, MDedge(June 18, 2019)
- Probiotics Benefit in Schizophrenia Shaped by Yeast Infections, Science Daily (April 5, 2017)
Research Interests
Gut-immune-brain interactions; neurodevelopment; biomarkers; autoimmunity; psychiatry
Research Summary
Dr. Severance investigates abnormalities of the gut-immune-brain axis in children and adults with psychiatric disorders and other complex inflammatory brain disorders. Implicated mechanisms include exposures to infectious agents, food antigens, auto-antigens, microbiome imbalances, endothelial barrier instabilities, and altered functioning of genetically polymorphic, synapse-active immune pathways, such as complement. Complement-associated defects in immune surveillance especially during neurodevelopment interfere with such critical activities as synaptic pruning and neurogenesis. Identifying individuals who can be treated with dietary, immune or other interventions that help to harmonize the body’s microbiome and imbalanced gut-immune-brain axis is the goal of this line of research.
Selected Publications
- Westacott LJ, Severance EG. The plasma proteome and prognosis for psychiatric symptoms in psychosis: A focus on function, not factors. Brain Behav Immun. 2024 Oct;121:26-27. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2024.07.017. Epub 2024 Jul 19. PMID: 39025415.
- Carmichael D, Prichett LM, Kumra T, Young A, Zeng Y, Yolken RH, Severance EG. COVID-19 and mental health risks in children: A role for biomarkers of inflammation, stress and the gut-brain axis. Biomarkers of Neuropsychiatry. 2023. 9:100080. Science Direct
- Severance EG, Prandovszky E, Yang S, Leister F, Lea A, Wu CL, Tamouza R, Leboyer M, Dickerson F, Yolken RH. Prospects and Pitfalls of Plasma Complement C4 in Schizophrenia: Building a Better Biomarker. Dev Neurosci. 2023;45(6):349-360. doi: 10.1159/000534185. Epub 2023 Sep 21. PMID: 37734326.
- Severance EG. Fungal Forces in Mental Health: Microbial Meddlers or Function Fixers? Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2023;61:163-179. doi: 10.1007/7854_2022_364. PMID: 35543867.
- Severance EG, Leister F, Lea A, Yang S, Dickerson F, Yolken RH. Complement C4 associations with altered microbial biomarkers exemplify gene-by-environment interactions in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 2021 Aug;234:87-93. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2021.02.001. Epub 2021 Feb 23. PMID: 33632634; PMCID: PMC8373622
Professional Activities
- Associate Editor, Schizophrenia Bulletin
- Editorial Board Member, Molecular and Cellular Probes
- Editorial Board Member, Schizophrenia Bulletin
- Guest Editor, Schizophrenia Research
- Guest Editor & Board member, Biomarkers in Neuropsychiatry