Avshalom Caspi

Avshalom Caspi is an Israeli-American psychologist and the Edward M. Arnett Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience in the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University, as well as Professor of Personality Development at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. He is known for his research on mental health and human development, much of which he has conducted with his wife and longtime research partner, Terrie Moffitt. The two first met when they presented adjacent posters at a 1987 conference in St. Louis, Missouri entitled "Deviant Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood". Among Caspi's notable discoveries was that of an association between the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and clinical depression. This discovery, originally reported in a 2003 study, spurred a wave of subsequent research on the potential genetic roots of various psychiatric conditions. However, a 2017 meta-analysis did not support the original finding, nor did a large analysis with nearly 100% power to detect the original finding. Therefore, the general approach of candidate gene or candidate gene by environment interaction research in single small studies is no longer widely accepted.