Dr. Vardan Arutiunian, PhD, is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Azrieli Research Center in Sainte-Justine Mother and Child University Hospital Center (CHU Sainte-Justine), University of Montreal in Sarah Lippe’s Lab (Montreal, QC, Canada). He received his PhD degree in Linguistics from the Center for Language and Brain (HSE University, Moscow, Russia) in the field of language and communication in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and completed a postdoctoral training (2022–2025) in clinical electroencephalography at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, in Sara Jane Webb’s Lab (Seattle, WA, USA).

In his research, Dr. Vardan Arutiunian uses multiple approaches and methods, such as behavioral assessment, genetic approaches (polymorphism, genome-wide copy number variation), and neurobiological methods (e.g., magnetoencephalography, electroencephalography, brain morphometry) to investigate a variability of language skills as well as structural and functional brain mechanisms of language impairment in children with ASD.

Dr. Vardan Arutiunian’s current studies combine genetic, neuroimaging, and behavioral approaches to understand the biological basis of language in autistic individuals and their first-degree relatives. His studies also address the biomarkers of language impairments in ASD and the presence of these biomarkers in clinical trials. Furthermore, his research aims to identify the early neural markers of language impairments in infants at risk for developing ASD and to reveal the validity of these neural markers to predict long-term language outcome in children who will later be diagnosed with ASD.

Dr. Vardan Arutiunian received a number of research and teaching awards from several organizations in Russia, European Union, and the United States. He presented the main results of his studies in Russia, Germany, France, Italy, Singapore, Canada, United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America. Dr. Arutiunian, PhD, is a 2024 ARI Research Grantee.