Selected Research Faculty

Jonathan E. Alpert MD, PhD

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

Julia Arnstein, MD

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

Anita Autry PhD

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

Laurie J. Bauman, PhD

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.

Benjamin Le Cook, Ph.D.

Improving methods for measuring disparities, and applying these methods to understanding the mechanisms underlying mental health and substance abuse treatment disparities, the association between acculturation and mental health, geographic differences in mental health service use disparities.

Pablo Castillo MD, PhD

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

Mirnova E. Ceide, MD

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

Henry Chung, MD

Behavioral health integration

Chinazo Cunningham, MD, MS

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

Emad N. Eskandar, MD

Developing novel neurosurgical and neuromodulatory approaches for neuropsychiatric conditions

Vilma Gabbay, MD

Damara Gutnick MD

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

Noboru Hiroi, PhD

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

Eric Hollander, MD

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

Bryen A. Jordan, PhD

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.

Kamran Khodakhah, PhD

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

Herbert M. Lachman, MD

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.

Richard Lipton, MD

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

Michael L. Lipton, MD, PhD

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

Alain Litwin, MD

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

Allissa Mallow DSW

Behavioral health integration, substance use disorders, work force diversity.

Mark Mehler, MD

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)

Sophie Molholm, PhD

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.

Wenzhu Mowrey, PhD

Biostatistical approaches and study design in neuropsychiatric and neuroimaging research

Anne Murphy, PhD

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.

Shadi Nahvi, MD, MS

Interventions to treat tobacco use among opiate dependent patients in methadone maintenance treatment, and among other vulnerable populations

Saleem M. Nicola, PhD

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

Patricia (Tia) Powell, MD

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

Jelena Radulovic, MD, PhD

Caryn R. R. Rodgers, PhD

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

Rachel Ross, MD, PhD

Stephanie Rudolph, PhD

Gary J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

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.

Lucas Sjulson, MD, PhD

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