ASD Researchers at UNC, Executive Committee

Research Assistant Professor and Translational Research Methodologist

Clare Harrop, Ph.D., is an assistant research professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences and an affiliate researcher with both the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD) and the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.  She is a developmental psychologist whose research combines behavioral, physiological, and electrophysiological methods to understand sex differences in autism and the female prototype of ASD.  Dr. Harrop completed her graduate training as part of the Preschool Autism Communication Trial (PACT) and postdoctoral training at UCLA’s Center for Autism Research and Treatment.  She has published a number of studies documenting subtle behavioral and physiological differences between males and females on the autism spectrum, indicative of potential female protective effects.    

Dr. Harrop was recently awarded an NIH-funded career development award (K12) to extend her research to understand electrophysiological markers of the female protective effect as part of the Autism Center of Excellence GENDAAR Network (Gender Exploration of Neurogenetics and Development to Advance Autism Research, PI:  Pelphrey, George Washington University).  Her research aims to synthesize data from multiple sources to develop targeted and personalized treatments for females on the spectrum.  Dr. Harrop also collaborates with Drs. Linda Watson (UNC Speech and Hearing Sciences) and Alana Campbell (UNC Psychiatry) as Co-PI of a multi-method sleep study for infants at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders and Dr. Brian Boyd (Kansas University) as part of a NICHD-funded outcome measure development grant.

Dr. Harrop was selected as an NIH Future Research Leader in 2017.