# Strengthening Our Scientific Team: Meet Nikolaos Daskalakis

January 29, 2025

_Working with world-class scientists propels us, and every now and then, we can share a glimpse into their lives and the work they’re doing! Here’s a brief Q&A with Dr. Nikolaos Daskalakis; we’re thrilled to have his energy and expertise as our consulting Chief Scientist!_

**What are you working on right now at Polaris?**

_As an academic, I always aspire for translational application of research findings. So, I am excited to be advising Polaris in the development of Polaris’ ADAPT neuropsychiatric biomarker platform, exploring the specific disease applications in which it could be impactful._

**What are you most hopeful about?**

_The adaptability of the panel! ADAPT holds the potential to circumvent the problem of low RNA quantity and deal with multiple RNA sources like blood and saliva._

**How do you feel your work and current industry shifts are changing to usher in advancement?**

_We may be able to both see and assess the heterogeneity of psychiatric diseases in their presentation, pathophysiology, and treatment response._

**When you’re not in the lab, where are you, what are you doing?**

_I love to travel with my wife and kids. Also, I am a cinephile._

**If you could collaborate with any specific organization, lab, or mind, who would it be?**

_I want to work with Archimedes and Leonardo da Vinci!_

#### More About Nikolaos Daskalakis, MD, PhD

Nikolaos P. Daskalakis, MD, PhD, is a renowned stress neuroscientist known for advancing Systems Biology of PTSD. He is the director of the Neurogenomics and Translational Bioinformatics Laboratory, part of the Advanced Bioinformatics and Computational Discovery Hub, at McLean Hospital and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is also an associate member of the Broad Institute, MIT Computer Science. He completed post-doctoral research fellowships in clinical neuroendocrinology at Leiden University and in systems biology at the Icahn School of Medicine. Dr. Daskalakis focuses on the interaction between stress and the brain, conducting translational studies and following an integrative systems biology approach. His lab uses transcriptomic and epigenomic profiling of brain and blood samples to identify cell and gene networks associated with vulnerability and resilience to PTSD.

## Press Contact

Jen Williams  
[jen@polarisgenomics.com](mailto:jen@polarisgenomics.com)  
+1 802 355 5072

## Additional Reading

### [Our Call to Serve: We’re Veterans Mapping the Biology of Mental Health](https://polarisgenomics.com/our-call-to-serve-were-veterans-mapping-the-biology-of-mental-health/)

November 11, 2025

https://youtu.be/LoiE2KJtNoc On Veterans Day and always, we honor those who have served. As a veteran-owned business, our founding mission of improving the lives of service members and veterans remains at our roots. As a captain, Purple Heart recipient, 9/11...

### [Polaris Genomics Advances Mental Health Biomarker Discovery](https://polarisgenomics.com/polaris-genomics-advances-mental-health-biomarker-discovery/)

September 16, 2025

For decades, psychiatry has struggled with a critical gap: unlike cardiology or oncology, there are no molecular biomarkers to guide diagnosis or treatment. Polaris Genomics was founded to change that, and our mission recently earned global recognition as we progress...

### [Conference Posters for Review](https://polarisgenomics.com/conference-posters-for-review/)

July 25, 2025

Our scientific team is often invited to present posters at a range of academic, pharma, and clinical research conferences focused on neuroscience and mental and brain health. If you have not been able to meet them in person and see our technical information firsthand...