Selected Faculty Investigators

Novel treatments for mood disorders; depressive subtypes; research ethics and design; medical education

Behavioral medicine including adherence to medication-taking, nicotine dependence, and substance abuse; addiction with comorbid chronic medical illness

Understanding neural circuits that control social behavior and how these circuits are regulated under physiological and pathological conditions

HIV prevention; adolescent sexual behavior/pregnancy; adolescent mental health; chronic illness in children and adolescents; adherence; research methods (randomized trials, qualitative research and mixed methods); Community-based participatory research.

Excitatory and inhibitory synaptic transmission and plasticity under physiological and brain disease conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, autism, schizophrenia and drug abuse

Understanding cognitive and motor function in older adults; dementia; geriatric psychiatry

Behavioral health integration

Access to care and health outcomes among drug users with or at-risk for HIV; buprenorphine treatment in primary care settings; opioid use, misuse, and addiction; collaborating with community-based organizations

Developing novel neurosurgical and neuromodulatory approaches for neuropsychiatric conditions

Community based participatory research, opioid use disorders, addressing clinician burnout, improving patient experience

Genetic bases of nicotine dependence, 22q11 syndrome, and other neuropsychiatric conditions

Novel treatments including CBDV in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); oxytocin in Prader Willi Syndrome (PWS); vasopressin 1a antagonists in ASD; alpha-1 chemotrypsin in ASD; Intermittent Explosive Disorder; Tourette Syndrome; transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in OCD and ASD

Synaptic plasticity; RNA transport and local translation in neurons; synapse-to-nucleus signaling; proteomic analysis of the dynamics of synaptic junctions; molecular mechanisms underlying neuropsychiatric disorders.

Cerebellar physiology and function; cerebellar contributions to motor coordination and movement disorders as well as to other disorders including Autism, schizophrenia, addiction and migraine.

Induced pluripotent stem cell technology to study the molecular basis of schizophrenia and autism by RNA-seq and ChIP-seq; patient-specific lines and isogenic knockout lines, generated by CRISP-Cas9.

Longitudinal population studies that link stress, pain and cognitive performance to genetics, biomarkers and neuroimaging

Neuroimaging; Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI); concussion injury; image processing and analysis, diffusion imaging; white matter microstructure; cognitive dysfunction

Models of hepatitis C virus (HCV) care for drug users; access to effective care for HCV-infected patients.

Behavioral health integration, substance use disorders.

Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine; Epigenetics and Evolutionary Biology; Developmental Pathogenesis of Neurodegenerative Diseases; Cytokine Biology/Signal Transduction Pathways in Neurodevelopmental Disorders (Autism/ASD)

Neurobiology of development disorders, particularly autism, with focus on how the human brain processes and integrates sensory inputs to impact perception and behavior, and the role of attention.

Biostatistical approaches and study design in neuropsychiatric and neuroimaging research

Parent-child treatment for parents with a history of abuse or neglect; creating positive social emotional and developmental outcomes for offspring of parents with trauma histories.

Interventions to treat tobacco use among opiate dependent patients in methadone maintenance treatment

Electrophysiological, behavioral and pharmacological approaches to studying neural circuits underlying reward-seeking and addictive behaviors.

Bioethics issues in public policy, dementia, mediation/consultation, end of life care, bioethics education and public health disasters.

Protective and risk factors for adolescent problem behaviors and the conceptualization of resilience in urban, low-income communities, particularly among youth of color.

Studying gut-brain communication in the regulation of food intake and associated metabolic processes; identifying therapeutic targets for eating behaviors associated with obesity, diabetes, and related diseases.

Understanding dysregulation of frontolimbic circuits in drug addiction-related behaviors; Developing and validating new technologies and targets for gene-based clinical neuromodulation.