Ardavan Mohammad Aghaei, MD, MPH, a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Psychiatry is a recipient of the Early Career Research Award from the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP).
The award provides Mohammad Aghaei with a $1,200 travel grant to attend AAAP’s annual meeting in San Diego from Dec. 7-10, 2023.
As an awardee, Mohammad Aghaei will contribute to annual meeting initiatives, including social media engagement and attending the research committee meeting.
Mohammad Aghaei hopes to work as an academic researcher in the field of addiction psychiatry. His previous research focused on addiction epidemiology and social psychiatry, and he currently works under the supervision of Anahita Bassir Nia, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry, conducting translational research on addiction and other psychiatric disorders.
Mohammad Aghaei’s main research interests are understanding the mechanisms of action of psychedelic drugs and exploring their potential in treating substance use disorders. Additionally, his other research has included studying the role of the endocannabinoid system in the interplay of substance use disorders and stress/trauma responses and potentially targeting this system for the treatment of substance use or stress/trauma-related disorders.