Sara Jane Webb, PhD

Faculty Appointment(s)

Professor

Leadership Role(s)

Faculty Liaison, Office for Teaching, Education and Research, Seattle Children’s Research Institute

Associate Director & Director of the Clinical Translational Core, Eunice Kennedy Shriver Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center

Steering Board, Molecular Medicine & Mechanisms of Disease, University of Washington

sjwebb@uw.edu

206-884-1160

Seattle Children's profile » PBS Lab »

Personal Statement

My research focuses on understanding the development of neural circuits that contributing to and underlie social development. Our lab uses a number of different tools: primarily electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs), but also eye tracking, cardiophysiology (EKG), neuroimaging, and behavioral measures to study how infants, children, and adults perceive, attend and learn about their social environment. Our projects also focus on the development and validation of biomarkers that may be used to understand the course of development and treatment response in children with disruption in social and communication function such as autism spectrum disorder, 16p11.2 deletion syndrome, and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Education

Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Illinois, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science, 2001
Clinical Electrophysiology, University of Washington, Center on Human Development & Disability, 2001-2004
PhD, Child Psychology, University of Minnesota, Institute of Child Development, 1996-2001
BA, Psychology, Yale University, 1992-1996

Department Affiliations

Centers/Programs

Other Affiliations

Seattle Children’s Research Institute
Center on Child Health, Behavior, & Development

Recent Publications

Rationale and study design for the first precision medicine randomized placebo-controlled trial in the 16p11.2 deletion syndrome.
(2026 May 4)
Expert Rev Neurother
Rea HM, Mattson JT, Arutiunian V, Verdes A, Bhattachan S, Santhosh M, Garcia A, Ajwani A, Bowen M, Faja S, Hanson E, Pawlowski K, Kochel RP, Prock L, Veenstra-VanderWeele J, Walton-Bowen K, Vogel A, Morgan A, Webb SJ, Wang PP
Visual Cortical Response Variability in Infants at High Familial Likelihood for Autism.
(2026 Mar 9)
bioRxiv
Dickinson A, Booth M, Huberty S, Ryan D, Campbell A, Girault JB, Miller N, Lau B, Zempel J, Webb SJ, Elison J, Lee AK, Estes A, Dager SR, Hazlett H, Wolff J, Schultz R, Marrus N, Evans A, Piven J, Pruett JR Jr, Jeste S
Conceptualizing Autism as a Behavioral Network: Transdiagnostic Associations with Co-occurring Psychiatric Conditions.
(2026 Mar 14)
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 54(2):
Han GT, Kala S, Naples A, Dawson G, Faja S, Shic F, Webb SJ, Sugar CA, Jeste S, Kleinhans N, Chawarska K, Bernier R, Dziura J, McPartland JC, Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials
Multilevel Multivariate Functional Principal Component Analysis of Evoked and Induced Event-Related Spectral Perturbations.
(2025 Dec 29)
Stat Biosci
Dong M, Telesca D, Dickinson A, Sugar C, Webb SJ, Jeste S, Levin AR, Shic F, Naples A, Faja S, Dawson G, McPartland JC, Şentürk D
Altered aperiodic EEG spectral power during speech perception task is associated with verbal communication in youths with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
(2025 Dec 29)
bioRxiv
Arutiunian V, Santhosh M, Neuhaus E, Borland H, Bernier RA, Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M, Gupta AR, Jack A, Jeste S, McPartland JC, Naples A, Van Horn JD, Pelphrey KA, Webb SJ
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