Keck School Faculty

Christopher Ching

Christopher Ching

Assistant Professor Of Research Neurology
Medicine
2025 Zonal Ave. Health Sciences Campus Los Angeles

USC: Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biomarkers in Alzheimer’s Disease NIAT32AG058507, 2019-2021

UCLA: Neurobehavioral Genetics Predoctoral Fellowship, NIH/NIMH 5T32MH073526, 2015-2016

UCLA: Neuroimaging Training Program, National Institutes of Health, R90 DA022768 and T90 DA023422, 2012-2013

UCLA: National Science Foundation Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate Grant, 2012-2012

Multi-Site Statistical Mapping of Along-Tract Microstructural Abnormalities in Bipolar Disorder with Diffusion MRI Tractometry bioRxiv. 2023 Oct 25. . View in PubMed

Beyond the Global Brain Differences: Intra-individual Variability Differences in 1q211 Distal and 15q11. 2 BP1-BP2 Deletion Carriers. Biol Psychiatry. 2023 Sep 01. . View in PubMed

Subcortical brain alterations in carriers of genomic copy number variants medRxiv. 2023 Feb 22. . View in PubMed

Volume of subcortical brain regions in social anxiety disorder: mega-analytic results from 37 samples in the ENIGMA-Anxiety Working Group Mol Psychiatry. 2023 03; 28(3):1079-1089. . View in PubMed

Preliminary validation of a structural magnetic resonance imaging metric for tracking dementia-related neurodegeneration and future decline Neuroimage Clin. 2023; 39:103458. . View in PubMed

Subcortical Brain Alterations in Carriers of Genomic Copy Number Variants Am J Psychiatry. 2023 09 01; 180(9):685-698. . View in PubMed

Coordinated cortical thickness alterations across six neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders Nat Commun. 2022 Nov 11; 13(1):6851. . View in PubMed

Cross disorder comparisons of brain structure in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and 22q112 deletion syndrome: A review of ENIGMA findings. Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2022 May; 76(5):140-161. . View in PubMed

Genomic and neuroimaging approaches to bipolar disorder BJPsych Open. 2022 Feb 01; 8(2):e36. . View in PubMed

Longitudinal trajectories of cortical development in 22q112 copy number variants and typically developing controls. Mol Psychiatry. 2022 10; 27(10):4181-4190. . View in PubMed

Shape analysis of subcortical structures in obsessive-compulsive disorder and the relationship with comorbid anxiety, depression, and medication use: A meta-analysis by the OCD Brain Imaging Consortium Brain Behav. 2022 10; 12(10):e2755. . View in PubMed

Remodeling of the Cortical Structural Connectome in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Results From the ENIGMA-PGC Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Consortium Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2022 09; 7(9):935-948. . View in PubMed

ENIGMA-DTI: Translating reproducible white matter deficits into personalized vulnerability metrics in cross-diagnostic psychiatric research Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 01; 43(1):194-206. . View in PubMed

Neuroinformatics. 2022 01; 20(1):261-275. . View in PubMed

Cortical thickness across the lifespan: Data from 17,075 healthy individuals aged 3-90? years. Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 01; 43(1):431-451.. View in PubMed

A meta-analysis of deep brain structural shape and asymmetry abnormalities in 2,833 individuals with schizophrenia compared with 3,929 healthy volunteers via the ENIGMA Consortium Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 01; 43(1):352-372. . View in PubMed

Effects of copy number variations on brain structure and risk for psychiatric illness: Large-scale studies from the ENIGMA working groups on CNVs Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 01; 43(1):300-328. . View in PubMed

Subcortical volumes across the lifespan: Data from 18,605 healthy individuals aged 3-90? years. Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 01; 43(1):452-469.. View in PubMed

In vivo hippocampal subfield volumes in bipolar disorder-A mega-analysis from The Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis Bipolar Disorder Working Group Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 01; 43(1):385-398. . View in PubMed

Greater male than female variability in regional brain structure across the lifespan Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 01; 43(1):470-499. . View in PubMed

Intelligence, educational attainment, and brain structure in those at familial high-risk for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 01; 43(1):414-430. . View in PubMed

What we learn about bipolar disorder from large-scale neuroimaging: Findings and future directions from the ENIGMA Bipolar Disorder Working Group Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 01; 43(1):56-82. . View in PubMed

Subcortical shape alterations in major depressive disorder: Findings from the ENIGMA major depressive disorder working group Hum Brain Mapp. 2022 01; 43(1):341-351. . View in PubMed

Virtual Ontogeny of Cortical Growth Preceding Mental Illness Biol Psychiatry. 2022 08 15; 92(4):299-313. . View in PubMed

Longitudinal Structural Brain Changes in Bipolar Disorder: A Multicenter Neuroimaging Study of 1232 Individuals by the ENIGMA Bipolar Disorder Working Group Biol Psychiatry. 2022 03 15; 91(6):582-592. . View in PubMed

RORA rs8042149 polymorphism moderates the association between PTSD symptom severity and transverse temporal gyrus thickness in Han Chinese adults who lost their only child J Affect Disord. 2022 10 01; 314:318-324. . View in PubMed

Local molecular and global connectomic contributions to cross-disorder cortical abnormalities Nat Commun. 2022 08 10; 13(1):4682. . View in PubMed

Site effects how-to and when: An overview of retrospective techniques to accommodate site effects in multi-site neuroimaging analyses Front Neurol. 2022; 13:923988. . View in PubMed

A comparison of methods to harmonize cortical thickness measurements across scanners and sites Neuroimage. 2022 11 01; 261:119509. . View in PubMed

Harmonization of multi-scanner in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy: ENIGMA consortium task group considerations Front Neurol. 2022; 13:1045678. . View in PubMed

Multiscale neural gradients reflect transdiagnostic effects of major psychiatric conditions on cortical morphology Commun Biol. 2022 09 27; 5(1):1024. . View in PubMed

Association between body mass index and subcortical brain volumes in bipolar disorders-ENIGMA study in 2735 individuals Mol Psychiatry. 2021 11; 26(11):6806-6819. . View in PubMed

Brain aging in major depressive disorder: results from the ENIGMA major depressive disorder working group Mol Psychiatry. 2021 09; 26(9):5124-5139. . View in PubMed

Structural brain imaging studies offer clues about the effects of the shared genetic etiology among neuropsychiatric disorders Mol Psychiatry. 2021 06; 26(6):2101-2110. . View in PubMed

Structural and functional brain alterations revealed by neuroimaging in CNV carriers Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2021 06; 68:88-98. . View in PubMed

1q211 distal copy number variants are associated with cerebral and cognitive alterations in humans. Transl Psychiatry. 2021 03 22; 11(1):182. . View in PubMed

Virtual Histology of Cortical Thickness and Shared Neurobiology in 6 Psychiatric Disorders JAMA Psychiatry. 2021 Jan 01; 78(1):47-63. . View in PubMed

Prioritizing Genetic Contributors to Cortical Alterations in 22q112 Deletion Syndrome Using Imaging Transcriptomics. Cereb Cortex. 2021 06 10; 31(7):3285-3298. . View in PubMed

Association of Immunosuppression and Viral Load With Subcortical Brain Volume in an International Sample of People Living With HIV JAMA Netw Open. 2021 01 04; 4(1):e2031190. . View in PubMed

Subcortical surface morphometry in substance dependence: An ENIGMA addiction working group study Addict Biol. 2020 11; 25(6):e12830. . View in PubMed

Altered white matter microstructure in 22q112 deletion syndrome: a multisite diffusion tensor imaging study. Mol Psychiatry. 2020 11; 25(11):2818-2831. . View in PubMed

Using structural MRI to identify bipolar disorders - 13 site machine learning study in 3020 individuals from the ENIGMA Bipolar Disorders Working Group Mol Psychiatry. 2020 09; 25(9):2130-2143. . View in PubMed

Large-scale mapping of cortical alterations in 22q112 deletion syndrome: Convergence with idiopathic psychosis and effects of deletion size. Mol Psychiatry. 2020 08; 25(8):1822-1834. . View in PubMed

Mapping Subcortical Brain Alterations in 22q112 Deletion Syndrome: Effects of Deletion Size and Convergence With Idiopathic Neuropsychiatric Illness. Am J Psychiatry. 2020 07 01; 177(7):589-600. . View in PubMed

Brain structural correlates of insomnia severity in 1053 individuals with major depressive disorder: results from the ENIGMA MDD Working Group Transl Psychiatry. 2020 12 08; 10(1):425. . View in PubMed

Association of Copy Number Variation of the 15q112 BP1-BP2 Region With Cortical and Subcortical Morphology and Cognition. JAMA Psychiatry. 2020 04 01; 77(4):420-430. . View in PubMed

The genetic architecture of the human cerebral cortex Science. 2020 03 20; 367(6484). . View in PubMed

ENIGMA and global neuroscience: A decade of large-scale studies of the brain in health and disease across more than 40 countries Transl Psychiatry. 2020 03 20; 10(1):100. . View in PubMed

Correction: Widespread white matter microstructural abnormalities in bipolar disorder: evidence from mega- and meta-analyses across 3033 individuals Neuropsychopharmacology. 2019 Dec; 44(13):2298. . View in PubMed

Widespread white matter microstructural abnormalities in bipolar disorder: evidence from mega- and meta-analyses across 3033 individuals Neuropsychopharmacology. 2019 12; 44(13):2285-2293. . View in PubMed

Genetic architecture of subcortical brain structures in 38,851 individuals Nat Genet. 2019 11; 51(11):1624-1636. . View in PubMed

Progressive brain atrophy in chronically infected and treated HIV+ individuals J Neurovirol. 2019 06; 25(3):342-353. . View in PubMed

The Association Between Familial Risk and Brain Abnormalities Is Disease Specific: An ENIGMA-Relatives Study of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Biol Psychiatry. 2019 10 01; 86(7):545-556. . View in PubMed

Striatal morphology and neurocognitive dysfunction in Huntington disease: The IMAGE-HD study Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2019 09 30; 291:1-8. . View in PubMed

Altered Cortical Brain Structure and Increased Risk for Disease Seen Decades After Perinatal Exposure to Maternal Smoking: A Study of 9000 Adults in the UK Biobank Cereb Cortex. 2019 12 17; 29(12):5217-5233. . View in PubMed

Cortical abnormalities in bipolar disorder: an MRI analysis of 6503 individuals from the ENIGMA Bipolar Disorder Working Group Mol Psychiatry. 2018 04; 23(4):932-942. . View in PubMed

Machine Learning for Large-Scale Quality Control of 3D Shape Models in Neuroimaging Mach Learn Med Imaging. 2017 Sep; 10541:371-378. . View in PubMed

Mapping 22q112 Gene Dosage Effects on Brain Morphometry. J Neurosci. 2017 06 28; 37(26):6183-6199. . View in PubMed

Novel genetic loci associated with hippocampal volume Nat Commun. 2017 01 18; 8:13624. . View in PubMed

Generalized reduced rank latent factor regression for high dimensional tensor fields, and neuroimaging-genetic applications Neuroimage. 2017 01 01; 144(Pt A):35-57. . View in PubMed

Novel genetic loci underlying human intracranial volume identified through genome-wide association Nat Neurosci. 2016 12; 19(12):1569-1582. . View in PubMed

MRI-based brain atrophy rates in ADNI phase 2: acceleration and enrichment considerations for clinical trials Neurobiol Aging. 2016 Jan; 37:26-37. . View in PubMed

A Model For Teaching Advanced Neuroscience Methods: A Student-Run Seminar to Increase Practical Understanding and Confidence J Undergrad Neurosci Educ. 2016; 15(1):A5-A10. . View in PubMed

Magnetic resonance imaging in Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative 2 Alzheimers Dement. 2015 Jul; 11(7):740-56. . View in PubMed

Common genetic variants influence human subcortical brain structures Nature. 2015 Apr 09; 520(7546):224-9. . View in PubMed

Medial Demons Registration Localizes The Degree of Genetic Influence Over Subcortical Shape Variability: An N= 1480 Meta-Analysis Proc IEEE Int Symp Biomed Imaging. 2015 Apr; 2015:1402-1406. . View in PubMed

Does MRI scan acceleration affect power to track brain change? Neurobiol Aging. 2015 Jan; 36 Suppl 1:S167-77.. View in PubMed

The ENIGMA Consortium: large-scale collaborative analyses of neuroimaging and genetic data Brain Imaging Behav. 2014 Jun; 8(2):153-82. . View in PubMed

Unbiased tensor-based morphometry: improved robustness and sample size estimates for Alzheimer's disease clinical trials Neuroimage. 2013 Feb 01; 66:648-61. . View in PubMed

MRI signatures of brain macrostructural atrophy and microstructural degradation in frontotemporal lobar degeneration subtypes J Alzheimers Dis. 2013; 33(2):431-44. . View in PubMed

Differential putaminal morphology in Huntington's disease, frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2012 Dec; 46(12):1145-58. . View in PubMed

Joint assessment of structural, perfusion, and diffusion MRI in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia Int J Alzheimers Dis. 2011; 2011:546871. . View in PubMed

Patterns of altered cortical perfusion and diminished subcortical integrity in posttraumatic stress disorder: an MRI study Neuroimage. 2011 Jan; 54 Suppl 1:S62-8. . View in PubMed

Training programme for rural midwives in Mozambique Trop Doct. 1985 Jul; 15(3):146-7. . View in PubMed

Dr. Ching is an Assistant Professor at The Imaging Genetics Center, part of the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, where his research focuses on neuroimaging and genomic markers of psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. As a core organizing member of the Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis Consortium (ENIGMA), he designs and implements standardized processing and analysis techniques for large-scale, international neuroimaging studies for a wide range of brain conditions. He leads the ENIGMA Bipolar Disorder Working Group, an effort including >200 researchers from around the world pooling data and resources to improve our understanding of the biological processes driving bipolar disorder. In complementary work, he studies rare copy number variants like 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome to understand how certain rare genetic mutations can lead to increased risk for developing psychiatric illness. Finally, he leads several large-scale transdiagnostic neuroimaging an genomic initiatives mapping the common and distinct brain and clinical factors across a range of serious mental illnesses.
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