[11] For her PhD, she worked in the Bookheimer Lab, completing her thesis on "Imaging Genetics of Frontostriatal Function in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders" using funding from a Neurogenetics Training Grant.
After receiving her PhD, she worked as a consultant on a consortium study to investigate mitochondrial dysfunction in children with autism at the University of California San Diego from 2009 to 2010.
[1][2][7] As mentioned in the abstract, Van Zeeland's work with autism showed that there are genetic variants linked in different communication pathways.
[1] The study was published in Science Translational Medicine in her 2010 article, "Altered functional connectivity in frontal lobe circuits is associated with variation in the autism risk gene CNTNAP2.
"[15] In 2012, she was named a PitchFest Finalist by the San Diego Venture Group, meaning that Cypher Genomic's business pitch beat out hundreds of other contestants from around the country.
"[17] In 2010, Van Zeeland won the International Society for Autism Research Neurobiological Dissertation Award for her work discovering genetic variants are linked to different communication pathways within the brain.