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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.