Deveroux
Ferguson received his PhD in neuroscience in 2008 from the Stanford
University. He is a post doctorate fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Eric
Nestler, Chair of the Department of Neuroscience, Mount Sinai School of
Medicine. His research interest is the direct pathophysiological consequences
of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the relationship between PTSD
and activation of the nuclear factor kappa B (NFkB) signaling pathway,
the effect of social defeat stress on NFkB and dendritic spine levels
in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and amygdala and the social environment's
regulation of gene expression by modulating the epigenome as an potential
explanation for the established relationship between stress, depression
and neural plasticity.
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Gregory
Ford received his PhD in neurobiology in 2008 from Meharry Medical College. He began his postdoctoral research at Morehouse School of Medicine in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. His research interest is in the regulation of transient cerebral ischemia, which induces several cascades of changes in gene expression; however, molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. Previous studies have shown the importance of the involvement of transcription factors following induction. Activation and regulation of Ets-1 and its targets might play a central role in transient cerebral ischemia.
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Jaime
Maldonado-Aviles received his PhD in neuroscience in 2008 from the University of Pittsburgh. He began his postdoctoral work at Yale University in 2009 He is specializing in molecular psychiatry directed toward the understanding of the basic molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the cause and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and eating disorders.
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Vicente
Martinez received his PhD in biopsychology/behavioral neuroscience in 2007
from the University of Michigan. He began his postdoctoral work at the University
of Washington in 2007. His research interests are the role of dopamine in sustained
attention and reward processing, particularly with regards to psychiatric disorders.
The focus of his research is to characterize the neurobiological underpinnings
associated with impaired cognition in schizophrenia with the goal of developing
pro-cognitive drugs capable of improving patient outcomes. His current work
in Dr. Paul Phillips' lab at the University of Washington focuses on the role
of phasic dopamine transmission in attentional effort and decision making. By
using fast-scan cyclic voltammetry their lab is capable of assessing dopamine
transmission in real time in awake, behaving rats.
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Richard
Addante received his BA in psychology from College of New Jersey. He entered
the PhD program in neuroscience at University of California-Davis in 2006. His
research interest is the neural bases of memory, attention, and cognitive control
deficits in cardiovascular disease and other psychiatric populations as indexed
by human electrophysiology and behavioral measures.
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Predoctoral Fellows |
Monica
Arnold received her B.S. in neuroscience from the University of California,
Los Angeles in 2006. She entered the PhD program in interdepartmental
neuroscience (pharmacology and toxicology) at University of California,
Irvine in 2006. Her research interest is neuropsychopharmacology with
a specific focus on the reinforcing effects of the tobacco smoke constituent,
norharmane.
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Christian
Bravo-Rivera received his BS in biology from the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico. In 2009, he entered the PhD program in anatomy and neurobiology at University of Puerto Rico, School of Medicine. His research interests include the plasticity events that underlie the learning process of extinction of conditioned fear and the loci of fear extinction memories to provide clinicians a better understanding of the neuropathology of fear-related disorders.
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Matthew
Calamia received his BS in psychology from Louisiana State University in
2007. He entered the PhD program in clinical psychology at the University of
Iowa in 2007. His research interest is in sex differences in neuropsychological
testing and in neuroanatomical organization within various brain-damaged samples.
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Candice
Chavez received her MA in general experimental psychology from California
State University, San Bernardino, in 2006. She entered the PhD program at the
University of California, Irvine, in 2006. Her research interest is in the ability
of the amygdala to induce cortical memory traces using a classical conditioning
paradigm, where a tone is paired with stimulation of the basal lateral amygdale.
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Mareshia
Donald received two BA degrees from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2004. In 2006, she entered the PhD program in neuroscience at Brandeis University. Her research interest is molecular and cellular neurobiology with an emphasis on nervous system development and the factors regulating cell fate decisions. She is interested in how embryonic signaling molecules such as bone morphogenetic proteins and notch-family proteins coordinate their actions to set the timing of neuron and flial differentiation.
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Mónica Feliú-Mójer received her BS in biology from the University
of Puerto Rico in Bayamón in 2004. She entered the PhD program in neuroscience
at Harvard Medical School in 2007. Her research interests are the molecular
and cell biological mechanisms that regulate synaptic vesicle release
and synaptic transmission.
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Senta
Furman received her BS in biological sciences from Wayne State University
in 2002. She entered the PhD program in neurobiology at the University of Illinois
at Chicago College of Medicine in 2005. Her research interest is in how the
nervous system facilitates (or fails to facilitate) social behaviors, particularly
in children with autism and anxiety.
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Jennifer
Gench received her BA in psychology from the University of Texas –
Austin. She entered the PhD Program in neuroscience at Brown University
in 2005. Her research interest is adolescents who were prenatal exposed
to cocaine in order to determine the consequences of cocaine exposure
on the development of children’s cognitive and behavioral functioning
using fMRI and behavioral measures.
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Jennifer
Hoy received her BS in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Arizona in 2003. She entered the PhD program in neuroscience at the University of Oregon in 2004. Her research interest is in social behavior and emotion and in the biological basis or influences over such behavior.
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Yonas
Keleta received his MSc in biotechnology from the University of Texas at San Antonio and entered its PhD program in neurobiology in 2005. His research interests include the role of the ventral hippocampus (Vent-Hippo) in reinforcement learning using a rat model of intracranial methamphetamine (METH) place conditioning. He is also interested in investigating levels of major neurotransmitters within the Vento-Hippo, the ventral tegmental area of the midbrain (VTA), and the accumbal region of the ventral striatum (NAc) as a function of intracranial METH pretreatment.
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Toyin
Ogunrinu received her BS in biology at Oakwood College in 2005. She entered the PhD program in cellular and molecular biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2005. Her research interest is focused on understanding mechanisms that promote both the migration and proliferation of glial-derived tumors and includes neurological diseases prevalent among minorities, specifically the neurological complications of both HIV/AIDS and diabetes.
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Jose
Rodriguez-Romaguera received his BA in psychology from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras in 2009. He entered the PhD program in anatomy and neurobiology at University of Puerto Rico, School of Medicine in 2009. His research interest is the neuronal circuitry underlying fear extinction learning. His specific focus is the effects of deep brain stimulation on obsessive-compulsive disorder-like behavior and on other brain structures using techniques such as immunocytochemistry and single-unit recording.
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Daniel
Sanchez received his BA in psychology from University of California
– San Diego in 2007. He entered the masters program in psychology at Northwestern
in 2008. His research interest is the neural correlates of the interactions
of implicit and explicit memory, how the human brain processes past experience
and knowledge in order to make future decisions, and neural activation
specific to disorders such as autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder.
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Eva
Shirley Sanchez received her MS in applied mathematics from Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute in 2004. She entered the PhD program in neuroscience
at Boston University in 2004. Her research interest is in neuromodulators
involved in plasticity and neurodegeneration. Of particular interest are
gaseous neuromodulators, nitric oxide, and carbon monoxide in the hippocampal
formation.
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Sebastian
Shaffer received his BS in neuroscience from Brown University in 2002. He
entered the PhD program in developmental neurobiology at Weill Medical College
of Cornell University in 2004. His research interest is in neurodegeneration
and disorders of the nervous system, particularly in the retinoic acid responsive
gene Hoxa1, whose loss of function mutations cause autism.
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Buddy
Whitman received his MS in raptor biology from Boise State University in
2006. He entered the PhD program in neurobiology at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2006. His research interests are in understanding
the long-term accumulation of neuronal changes associated with the addicted
state, the consequences of developmental exposure to drug/polydrug on neural
pathways, and the role of epigenetic mechanisms on the neuronal plasticity associated
with addiction.
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Sasha
Wolosin received her B.A. in mathematics and cognitive science from Rice
University in 2005. She entered the PhD program in psychology at University
of Texas at Austin in 2007. Her research interests include the cognitive neuroscience
of declarative memory, specifically how reward and attention influence declarative
memory formation and retrieval in the human brain.
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