Research Interests
Keywords: Obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette syndrome, Exome, Genome, GWAS, De novo, RNA, transcriptome
Dr. Halvorsen’s research focuses on the role of common and rare genetic variation in psychiatric disorders, with a particular concentration on Obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette Syndrome. He is actively involved in case/control studies of these cohorts across a wide variety of genetic data (genotype array, whole exome, whole genome), that serve the purpose of identifying specific risk variation for these disorders. He has substantial experience and retains an active interest in de novo mutation studies of these cohorts, where genetic variants present in offspring but absent from both parents are detected and assessed for their potential contribution to the disorder. He is actively interested in the downstream functional effect of risk variants identified, in particular their effect on the transcriptome of the developing nervous system.
Publications
Matt Halvorsen in UNC Genetics News

October 2, 2026
Department of Genetics Publications for August 2026
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 32 papers in August 2026.

August 10, 2026
Halvorsen Awarded New R21 Grant from NIMH
Dr. Matt Halvorsen (Assistant Professor, Genetics) received a new R21 award from the National Institutes of Mental Health for his project titled "Identifying precise brain regions and cell types associated with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and related diagnoses using genomics”.

May 13, 2026
Department of Genetics Publications for April 2026
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 29 papers in April 2026.

May 12, 2026
Department of Genetics Publications for March 2026
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 35 papers in March 2026.

November 5, 2025
Department of Genetics Publications for October 2025
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 40 papers in October 2025.

July 1, 2025
Department of Genetics Publications for June 1st – 28th, 2025
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 25 papers during June 1st - 28th 2025.

June 3, 2025
Department of Genetics Publications for April 27th – May 31st, 2025
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 42 papers during April 27th - May31st 2025.

April 20, 2025
Department of Genetics Publications for March 2nd – 29th, 2025
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 30 papers during March 2nd - 29th 2025.

November 11, 2024
Department of Genetics Publications for October 27th – November 9th, 2024
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 8 papers during October 27th - November 9th, 2024.

October 17, 2024
Department of Genetics Publications for September 29th – October 12th, 2024
Department of Genetics faculty, postdocs, students and collaborators published 13 papers during September 29th - October 12th, 2024.