Alice Luo Clayton, PhD

Dr. Alice Luo Clayton joined the Coalition for Aligning Science in 2022 as a Senior Program Director who will primarily be overseeing the Coalition’s autism workstream. 

Previously, Dr. Luo Clayton was Senior Scientist at the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) where she was the lead scientist on programs related to neural circuits, cognition, and behavior. During her tenure, she managed the growth and development of the SFARI’s animal and human circuits research grant portfolio by organizing workshops, funding opportunities, and consortia. Dr. Luo Clayton designed and led the Autism Rat Consortium (ARC), which utilized the richness of rat behavior to elucidate brain circuits linked with mutations in autism risk genes. She also spearheaded the development of the Human Cognitive and Behavioral Sciences grant program to leverage advances in cognitive neuroscience and quantitative behavioral analysis to drive translational science for autism. Dr. Luo Clayton was the architect of the Bridge to Independence Award, a program that emphasized inclusive excellence and launched the careers of numerous early career researchers into autism research by providing grant funding and wraparound professional development support.

Prior to her position at the Simons Foundation, Dr. Luo Clayton was a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health. She contributed to the scientific management of the institute’s grant portfolios related to developmental trajectories of pediatric-onset psychiatric conditions. In addition, she organized scientific review panels to develop a clinical trial network focused on the efficacy of ketamine as a rapid antidepressant and contributed to the funding process for the Human Connectome Project.

She earned her doctorate in systems neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania in the laboratory of Gary Aston-Jones, and did postdoctoral work at the National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program with Roy Wise and Carl Lupica. Dr. Luo Clayton is broadly interested in brain connectivity and how information processing within neural networks translates into behavior. Her research focused on the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a major source of midbrain dopamine neurons.