Translational Alcohol Research Program (TARP)

T32 AA028259 funded by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

The Translational Alcohol Research Program (TARP) is a two-year program that spans the Yale Schools of Medicine and Public Health including the Departments of Environmental Health Sciences, Psychiatry, Internal Medicine, Social Behavioral Sciences and Emergency Medicine. TARP will afford post-doctoral trainees the opportunity to devote full-time effort during the initial phase of their careers to developing the skills and experience needed to become independent researchers in the field of translational research in Alcohol Use Disorders (AUD). A new generation of pharmacological, metabolomic, brain and whole-body imaging, mass spectrometry, cellular and molecular, hepatic and sterile inflammation approaches bring the potential to more effectively connect basic and clinical research and to apply a ‘systems’ approach to the study of AUD. The focus of the proposed training program is on understanding systemic processes involved in AUD, such as inflammation and toxicity, that affect multiple organ systems.

Applicants will be MD or PhD post-doctoral candidates trained in specialties that may include psychiatry, internal medicine, clinical psychology, pharmacology and toxicology, or neuroscience. Candidates will be selected by their potential for excellence in the field of translational research in AUD.

T32 Trainees are typically funded for two years and are required to commit at least 90 percent of their time to research.

New appointments typically being July 1 of each year. Applicants must be US citizens or hold a permanent U.S. Resident Visa (“Green Card”). Applicants must have their PhD or MD by July 1 for the start year to be considered for this training program.

How to Apply

Applicants should send materials including a CV, statement of research career goals, and 2 letters of reference to Dr. Vasilis Vasiliou or Dr. Kelly Cosgrove. Applicants do not need to have previous experience with alcohol research to apply. It is suggested that applicants identify several potential primary mentors in the statement of research goals (list of participating faculty below).

We welcome applications from PhD and MD level trainees in these or related fields:

Internal medicine
Genetics
Neurobiology
Neuroscience
Clinical and/ or Experimental Psychology
Developmental/behavioral pediatrics
Neonatology
Pharmacology
Psychiatry
Public health
Toxicology

Directors

Vasilis Vasiliou, PhD
Department Chair and Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences) and of Ophthalmology and Visual Science and of Environment; Director, Yale Superfund Research Center; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Cancer Center; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health; Co-Director, Environmental Health Sciences Track, Executive MPH
Research Interests
Ophthalmology
Glutathione
Gout
Genomics
Environmental Health
Mass Spectrometry
Alcoholism
Aldehyde Dehydrogenase
Diabetes Mellitus
Vasilis Vasiliou, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences. He received his BSc in Chemistry (1983) and PhD in Biochemical Pharmacology (1988) from the University of Ioannina, Greece. He then trained in gene-environment interactions, molecular toxicology and pharmacogenetics at the Department of Environmental Health in the College of Medicine at the University of Cincinnati (1991-1995). In 1996, he joined the faculty of the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy where he rose through the ranks to become Professor and Director of the Toxicology Graduate Program. Since 2008, he was also Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. In July 2014, he joined the faculty of Yale University in his new position. Professor Vasiliou has established an internationally-recognized research program that has been continuously funded by NEI/NIH and NIAAA/NIH since 1997, and recently NIEHS. His research interests include the etiology and molecular mechanisms of environmentally-induced human disease, such as liver disease, obesity & diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. His research focuses on the means by which the exposome (total exposures throughout life), metabolism (specifically aldehyde dehydrogenases and cytochrome P-450s) and antioxidants (glutathione and catalase) contribute to human health and disease. His laboratory utilizes state-of-the-art integrated system approaches that include metabolomics, lipidomics, exposomics, tissue imaging mass spectrometry, deep-learning, as well as human cohorts and genetically-engineered mouse models in order to elucidate mechanisms, and to discover biomarkers and novel interventions for human disease. Dr Vasiliou is the director of the NIEHS-funded P42 Yale Superfund Research Center and also the director of the NIAAA-funded R24-Resource Center for Mouse Models and Metabolomics Tools to Investigate Alcohol Metabolism and Tissue Injury. Dr. Vasiliou has published over 250 papers and edited three books on Alcohol and Cancer. Dr. Vasiliou is the editor of Human Genomics and serves on the editorial boards of several toxicology and visual sciences journals. Professor Vasiliou is committed to training the next generation of scientists. At the University of Colorado, he was the Director of the Environmental and Molecular Toxicology Graduate Program for 15 years. At Yale he leads an NIAAA-funded T32 Translational Alcohol Research Program (TARP) Training Program for post-doctoral fellows, and an NIHES -funded R25 Summer Research Experience in Environmental Health (SREEH) Training Program that introduce undergraduate students in Connecticut (CT) to Environmental Health Research. Dr. Vasiliou has trained mentored and advised more than 60 trainees ranging from MPH and PhD students to postdoctoral fellows and junior faculties.
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Kelly Cosgrove, PhD
Professor of Psychiatry and of Neuroscience and of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging; Co-Director of the T32 Translational Alcohol Research Program, Psychiatry and Public Health
Research Interests
Radiology
Psychiatry and Psychology
Diseases
Brain
Chemicals and Drugs
Alcohol Drinking
alpha7 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor
Neurobiology
Neuroimaging
Nicotine
Positron-Emission Tomography
Opioid-Related Disorders
Dr. Cosgrove uses neuroreceptor imaging techniques such as PET to gain insights into the brains of people with substance use and other stress-related disorders. Trained as a clinical psychologist who worked with individuals managing alcohol and drug use disorders, Dr. Cosgrove transitioned to conducting research in order to inform the treatment of substance use disorders. Her laboratory develops and applies innovative brain imaging paradigms to track changes in critical neurochemicals over time, to identify treatment targets for psychiatric disorders, and to examine individual and sex and gender differences.
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Faculty

Jenn Batisti, MD
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine (Digestive Diseases)
Research Interests
Diseases
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
Dr. Batisti is a gastroenterologist and transplant hepatologist. Her specific interests include care of the liver transplant patient, organ allocation, nutrition in transplant, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
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Ying Chen, MD, PhD
Research Scientist in Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences)
Research Interests
Nervous System Diseases
Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases
Digestive System Diseases
Disorders of Environmental Origin
Dr. Chen has a broad background in environmental genetics and molecular toxicology, with specific training and expertise in redox biology, oxidative stress related diseases, and transgenic mouse models of redox dysregulation. Her research over the past ten years utilizes unique animal models and applies the system biology approach integrating multi-omics data and histopathology to understand the mechanistic roles of redox homeostasis in disease conditions related to environmental and dietary exposures. How does redox-elicited modifications of the liver proteome tune cellular response to protect against alcohol-associated fatty liver disease?Does oxidative stress play a mutagenic role in emerging water contaminant 1,4-dioxane-induced liver cancerWhat is the functional crosstalk between antioxidants in the central nervous system as they relate to neuronal health and disease?What is the translational importance of these new knowledge in risk assessment, disease prevention and treatment?
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Lisa Fucito, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychiatry; Director, Tobacco Treatment Service, Psychiatry
Research Interests
Vulnerable Populations
Technology
Tertiary Prevention
Tobacco Use
Tobacco Use Cessation
Sleep
Sleep Hygiene
Secondary Prevention
Sedentary Behavior
Harm Reduction
Health Risk Behaviors
Mobile Applications
Nicotine
Exercise
Alcohol Drinking
Alcoholism
I am an expert in tobacco and hazardous alcohol use, other modifiable lifestyle risk behaviors (i.e., deficient sleep, and physical inactivity), and digital health technology. My research focuses on: 1) better understanding and predicting these risks; 2) phenotyping risk variability within individuals; 3) developing novel lifestyle interventions that are tailored to these unique risk profiles; and 4) implementing lifestyle risk behavior/mental health screening and intervention in clinical settings. I utilize various technologies including biosensors, smartphones, telehealth, and electronic health record tools to monitor these behaviors, derive integrated biometric feedback, deliver interventions, and improve healthcare. In addition, I am interested in digitally-derived endpoints as alternative endpoints for clinical trials. In a separate and distinct line of research, I study the effects of different tobacco products and their constituents in adults to inform the regulation of tobacco products by the FDA. I also direct the Tobacco Treatment Service at Smilow Cancer Hospital and teach/mentor graduate students, residents, fellows, and junior faculty in addiction, behavioral medicine, health technology, and clinical research. Current studies include: (1) Observational Study: phenotyping heavy drinking and alcohol use disorder risk in young adults using advances in web-based neuropsychological assessment, smartphone sensing technology, machine learning and statistical modeling (N=350) (2) RCT: evaluating effects of e-cigarettes vs. oral nicotine pouches and their constituents (menthol flavor, nicotine concentration) on cigarette smoking in adults (N=256) (3) RCT: testing a personalized sleep/cardiovascular wellness feedback intervention using the OuraRing and smartphone diaries for young adults who drink heavily (N=60) (4) RCT + imaging study: testing CBT for insomnia as an adjunct to standard tobacco treatment and the neurobiological mechanisms underlying deficient sleep as a tobacco relapse precipitant (N=114)
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Joel Gelernter, MD
Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Genetics and of Neuroscience; Director, Division of Human Genetics (Psychiatry)
Research Interests
Psychiatry
Polymorphism, Genetic
Thailand
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
Substance-Related Disorders
China
Alcoholism
Anxiety Disorders
Affective Disorders, Psychotic
Genetics
Genetics, Population
Israel
Global Health
Joel Gelernter, MD, is Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Genetics and Neurobiology; and Director, Division of Human Genetics (Psychiatry), at the Yale University School of Medicine. The research focus of his laboratory is genetics of psychiatric illness – phenotypes including cocaine, opioid, nicotine, cannabis, and alcohol dependence, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and panic and other anxiety disorders. He also studies a range of related phenotypes, including pharmacogenomics; and basic issues in population and complex trait genetics. The overall approach involves study of genetic polymorphism and sequence variation, on a molecular level and from the perspective of population genetics. Dr Gelernter’s laboratory published genomewide association studies (GWAS) for cocaine, cannabis, and opioid dependence, PTSD, alcohol dependence, nicotine dependence, and several related traits. All of these studies have resulted in the identification of novel risk loci.
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Ansel Hillmer, PhD
Associate Professor Adjunct; Associate Director of Imaging, Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
Research Interests
Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment
Alcohol-Related Disorders
Neuroimaging
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
Substance Withdrawal Syndrome
Ansel obtained his Ph.D. in Medical Physics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 2014. His research program features core areas of translational characterization of novel PET radiotracers, developing new imaging paradigms to improve quantification of brain neurobiology, and human neuroimaging research studying mechanisms underlying diverse psychiatric conditions. Research efforts are complemented by didactic activities lecturing at Yale and individual mentoring of trainees. Current projects include characterizing novel PET radiotracers of immune-related targets in the brain; developing novel imaging paradigms to study acute alcohol effects on neuroimmune and glutamate systems; assessment of dopamine release from smoked cannabis; method development for analyzing multimodal imaging data from fMRI-PET or PET-PET datasets; and implementing Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to identify different sources of PET radiotracer uptake.
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Tamas Horvath, DVM, PhD
Jean and David W. Wallace Professor of Comparative Medicine and Professor of Neuroscience and of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences; Chair, Comparative Medicine
Research Interests
Obesity
Neuroendocrinology
Physiology
Tamas Horvath is Professor and Chair of the Department of Comparative Medicine and Professor of Neurobiology and Ob/Gyn at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. He is also the Director for the Yale Program on Integrative Cell Signaling and Neurobiology of Metabolism. He received a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) degree from the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences in Budapest, Hungary, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree from the University of Szeged in Hungary. His research has been focusing on neuronal circuitries that support physiological and pathological homeostatic conditions, including processes associated with reproduction, energy metabolism and neurodegeneration.
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Yasuko Iwakiri, PhD
Professor of Medicine (Digestive Diseases)
Research Interests
Endothelial Cells
Fibrosis
Hypertension, Portal
Kupffer Cells
Lymphangiogenesis
Liver Regeneration
Vascular Diseases
Splenomegaly
Pancreatitis
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Amy Justice, MD, PhD
C.N.H. Long Professor of Medicine (General Medicine) and Professor of Public Health (Health Policy)
Research Interests
Aging
Chronic Disease
Internal Medicine
HIV Infections
Health Policy
Medical Oncology
Veterans
Dr. Justice is a Clinical Epidemiologist who has developed multiple large national cohorts based on data from the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System Electronic Medical Record enhanced with National Death Index and CMS data, patient completed surveys, DNA and tissue repositories, and stored pathology samples. She has two decades of experience in the processes required to clean, validate, and standardize raw EMR data and in its analysis using standard statistical methods, machine learning techniques, and cross cohort validations. The oldest and best known of her projects is the Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS). VACS is an ongoing, longitudinal study of >170,000 United States veterans with and without HIV infection continuously funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1996. She has developed and validated widely used indices including a prognostic index, the VACS Index, and a patient reported symptom index, the HIV Symptom Index. She is the principal investigator of the National Cancer Institute provocative questions grant HIV and Aging Mechanisms for Hepatocellular Cancer, has published over 400 peer reviewed manuscripts, and has presented work at the United Nations, The International AIDS Society, The Royal Medical College in London, the White House, and Congress. She is a member of the National Cancer Institute Ad hoc Subcommittee on HIV and AIDS Malignancy and the HIV and Aging Working Group, NIH Office of AIDS Research. She has recently joined the International Advisory Boards of Lancet HIV and Journal of the International AIDS Society.
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Brian D. Kiluk, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychiatry; Director, Psychotherapy Development Center; Director, Technology-Based Interventions
Research Interests
Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms
Endpoint Determination
Clinical Trials as Topic
Therapy, Computer-Assisted
Substance-Related Disorders
Psychiatry and Psychology
Brian D. Kiluk, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine is a licensed clinical psychologist conducting research in the field of substance use disorder treatment. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, completed postdoctoral training at Yale through a National Institute on Drug Abuse T32 Fellowship, and joined the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry in 2011. Dr. Kiluk's area of research includes an emphasis on three major topics: (1) the evaluation and enhancement of a web-based version of cognitive behavioral therapy for alcohol and drug use disorders (CBT4CBT); (2) exploration of the mechanisms of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for substance use disorders, and (3) the identification of clinically meaningful outcome indicators of clinical trials for illicit drug use disorders. He is Principal Investigator of multiple NIH-funded research grants through the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and his work has been featured at national scientific meetings. As an expert in CBT for substance use disorders, Dr. Kiluk also consults with treatment facilities across the U.S. to provide workshop training in manual-guided CBT, as well as ongoing fidelity monitoring and coaching.
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John Krystal, MD
Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research and Professor of Psychiatry, of Neuroscience, and of Psychology; Co-Director, Yale Center for Clinical Investigation; Chair, Psychiatry; Physician-in-Chief of Psychiatry, Yale New Haven Hospital; Director: NIAAA Center for the Translational Neuroscience of Alcoholism; Director, Clinical Neuroscience Division, VA National Center for PTSD
Research Interests
Neuroimaging
Psychiatry
Neurobiology
Genetics
Drug Therapy
Alcoholism
Veterans
Schizophrenia
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
Dr. Krystal is a leading expert in the areas of alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and depression. His work links psychopharmacology, neuroimaging, molecular genetics, and computational neuroscience to study the neurobiology and treatment of these disorders. He is best known for leading the discovery of the rapid antidepressant effects of ketamine in depressed patients.He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine. He also serves in a variety of advisory and review capacities for NIAAA, NIMH, Wellcome Trust, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, the Broad Institute, the Karolinska Institutet, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.Dr. Krystal previously served on the National Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Advisory Council (NIAAA), the Department of Defense Psychological Health Advisory Committee, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Advisory Council, and the NIMH Board of Scientific Counselors (chair, 2005-2007). He has led the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (president, 2012), and International College of Neuropsychophamacology (president, 2016-2018). Currently, he is co-chair of the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders (NeuroForum) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and he edits the journal, Biological Psychiatry (impact factor: 13.382).
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Chiang-Shan Ray Li, MD, PhD
Professor of Psychiatry and of Neuroscience
Research Interests
Drug Users
Diseases
Central Nervous System
Chemicals and Drugs
Anatomy
Alcohols
Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms
Behavior Control
Biological Therapy
Mental Disorders
Therapeutics
Psychiatry and Psychology
Psychological Phenomena
Research Subjects
Nervous System
Nervous System Diseases
I am a Professor of Psychiatry and of Neuroscience at Yale University School of Medicine. I graduated from National Taiwan University College of Medicine and California Institute of Technology and has been a faculty member at Yale since 2003. My earlier work employed non-human primate models to understand the neural bases of cognition. Current research in my laboratory continues to focus on systems neuroscience. By combining psychophysics, computational modeling and brain imaging we explore the circuit mechanisms of a multitude of cognitive constructs, including self control, affect regulation, and reward-related processes. The primary goals are to understand systems neural bases of these cognitive processes and how these neural processes contribute to the etiology of psychiatric and neurological illnesses, with a specific emphasis on addiction.
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Graeme Mason, PhD
Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and of Psychiatry; Director Metabolic Modeling and Director Psychiatric MRS, Magnetic Resonance Research Center; Director, Neuroimaging Sciences Training Program, Radiology & Biomedical Imaging and Psychiatry; Chair, Magnetic Resonance Research Center Protocol Review Committee, Radiology & Biomedical Imaging
Research Interests
Physiological Effects of Drugs
Substance Withdrawal Syndrome
Central Nervous System Diseases
Carbohydrates
Alcoholic Intoxication
Alcohol-Induced Disorders, Nervous System
Alcoholism
Amino Acids
Fatty Acids
Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action
Mood Disorders
Mathematical Computing
Neuroimaging
Dr. Graeme F. Mason develops experimental models and methods for studies of brain metabolism using 1H and 13C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Mass Spectrometry in conjunction with 13C isotopic labeling in vivo, in cell preparations, and other systems. His work began during his graduate studies at Yale where he used a rat model for the experimental determination of brain glucose transport kinetics, energetics, and neurotransmitter metabolism. Dr. Mason received further training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he guided the group's 13C-labeling studies of the human brain in vivo in the 4.1T whole-body MR system. Dr. Mason studies metabolism and neurotransmission in the brain in vivo, including effects of psychiatric, neurological, and metabolic conditions. Dr. Mason examines healthy subjects and patients to investigate relationships among GABA, glutamate, and glutamine concentrations and their rates of synthesis and release in the brain, in particular with regard to effects of acute and chronic use of alcohol. He also studies detailed kinetic modeling of isotopomer and isotopologues using data from high-resolution NMR and mass spectrometry.
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Sherry McKee, PhD
Professor of Psychiatry; Director, Yale Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory; Clinical Director, Forensic Drug Diversion Clinic; Director, Yale Program for Sex Differences in Alcohol Use Disorder, Psychiatry
Research Interests
Alcohol-Related Disorders
Criminal Psychology
Psychiatry and Psychology
Substance-Related Disorders
Tobacco Use Disorder
Dr. Sherry McKee is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale Medical School, Director of the Yale Behavioral Pharmacology Laboratory, and Clinical Director of the Forensic Drug Diversion Clinic. Dr. McKee directs a translational program of research focused on treatment development for addictive disorders, with an emphasis on women and more recently criminal justice populations. Her work spans clinical trials, behavioral pharmacology, survey research, and epidemiological research to uncover mechanisms underlying poor outcomes and to translate these finding into improved interventions. Dr. McKee has directed large NIH-funded efforts (P50-ORWH/NIDA; P01-ORWH/NIAAA) focused on developing effective medications for addictive behaviors which are responsive to sex-differences. Dr. McKee currently leads the Yale-SCORE on Sex Differences in Alcohol Use Disorder (U54AA027989, ORWH/NIAAA). For this effort, she directs an interdisciplinary team conducting translational cross-species research focused on expediting the development of gender-sensitive therapeutics for alcohol use disorder, mentoring junior faculty, and providing a national resource on women and alcohol. Dr. McKee also leads a federally funded partnership between Yale University, the of Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and the State of Connecticut Department of Correction, to develop and implement an integrated system of addiction care for adults returning to their communities following incarceration.
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Wajahat Mehal, MD, DPhil
Professor of Medicine (Digestive Diseases); Director of Yale Weight Loss Program; Director of Yale Fatty Liver Disease Program
Research Interests
Hepatitis
Fibrosis
Liver
Inflammation
Digestive System Diseases
Weight Loss
Weight Reduction Programs
Wajahat Mehal MD, DPhil, is Professor of Medicine in Digestive Diseases, and Director of the Yale Fatty Liver Disease Program and the Yale Metabolic Health and Weight Loss Program.
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Evan Morris, PhD
Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and of Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests
Sensory Receptor Cells
Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography
Morris specializes in using kinetic modeling and image processing to extract physiological information from dynamic PET images. His current projects include: Modeling and texture analysis to image Non-small cell lung cancer with tyrosine kinase inhibitor tracers Novel kinetic modeling to image dyskinesias in Parkinson's Continued Optimization of Dopamine Movies to study Addiction and Behavior Applying principles in functional connectivity and machine learning to analyze dopamine movies Imaging new targets in Depression, AlcoholismUsing multimodal PET to understand the opioid system in alcoholism.Creating new parametric images to speed drug discovery Morris and his group continue to refine mathematical and statistical aspects of their techniques for making "dopamine movies" of the brain. With their dopamine movies, Morris and colleague Kelly Cosgrove and their team discovered sex differences in brains of smokers smoking cigarettes (J Neurosci Dec 10, 2014).
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Michael H Nathanson, MD, PhD
Gladys Phillips Crofoot Professor of Medicine (Digestive Diseases) and Professor of Cell Biology; Co-Director, Yale Liver Center, Digestive Diseases; Director, Center for Cell and Molecular Imaging
Research Interests
Cell Nucleus
Calcium Signaling
Cell Biology
Digestive System Diseases
Liver
Hepatocytes
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Stephanie O'Malley, PhD
Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry; Deputy Chair, Clinical Research
Research Interests
Substance-Related Disorders
Risk Reduction Behavior
Smoking
Psychiatry and Psychology
Psychiatry
Alcoholism
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Godfrey Pearlson, MA, MBBS
Professor of Psychiatry and of Neuroscience
Research Interests
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Neurobiology
Phenotype
Psychiatry
Psychotic Disorders
Substance-Related Disorders
Genotype
Endophenotypes
Dr. Pearlson's medical school training was in the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England. Following this he completed a graduate degree in philosophy at Columbia University in New York and was successively a resident, postdoctoral fellow and faculty member at Johns Hopkins University Department of Psychiatry under Dr. Paul McHugh, where he was ultimately Professor of Psychiatry and founding director of the division of Psychiatry Neuroimaging.Dr. Pearlson is currently founding director of the Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, a 50-person organization consisting of 5 component labs. The Center specializes in the translational neuroscience of major mental illness, including dementias, mood disorders, substance abuse (cannabis, alcohol, cocaine), schizophrenia and psychotic bipolar disorder, ADHD, autism spectrum and other conditions spanning childhood to old age.The center includes two 3-Tesla research-dedicated MRI scanners and scans ~1200 individuals annually, all of whom are genotyped. It has a fully equipped psychophysiology lab, rTMS suite and a bio-bank for specimen storage. The Center also specializes in the importation of virtual reality (VR) paradigms into the functional MRI environment to yield ecologically valid "virtual environments" to study complex behaviors in the scanner such as automobile driving.Dr. Pearlson's research uses neuroimaging as a tool to address a broader array of questions regarding the neurobiology of major mental disorders, primarily psychosis and substance abuse. Important "firsts" include showing that structural and functional brain changes associated with schizophrenia can also occur in psychotic bipolar disorder, the relationship of structural and functional abnormalities in the superior temporal gyrus with hallucinations in schizophrenia, using VR to explore complex behaviors in the MRI scanner (or example simulated driving) to assess disruptive effects of abused substances (cannabis, alcohol) and the first demonstration of human in-vivo cocaine-mediated dopamine release using PET ligands. As part of the B-SNIP consortium, his lab contributed towards a reconceptualization of psychotic illness based on biological, rather than clinical syndromic criteria.Dr. Pearlson is an former NIMH MERIT awardee and is PI on multiple R01 grants from NIAAA, NIDA and NIMH. He has been awarded a NARSAD Distinguished Investigator award and a Michael visiting professorship from the Weizmann Institute. He has published >750 peer-reviewed research articles, with an H-index of 108. He is also co-founder of the annual BrainDance competition for high school and college students across New England. These competitive awards encourage students to gain knowledge about psychiatric diseases and to develop a more tolerant and realistic perspective towards people with severe psychiatric problems. Dr. Pearlson was awarded the 2019 American Psychiatric Association Mentorship Award, the 2015 Stanley Dean Award for Schizophrenia Research from the American College of Psychiatrists and in 2015 was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars (distinguished alumni).Current important intra-departmental collaborations are with Drs. Krystal (CTNA), Gelernter and Potenza.
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Ismene Petrakis, MD
Professor of Psychiatry; Chief of Psychiatry, VA Connecticut Healthcare System
Research Interests
Psychiatry
Psychiatry and Psychology
Psychopharmacology
Neurobiology
Diagnosis, Dual (Psychiatry)
Comorbidity
Alcoholism
Veterans
Substance-Related Disorders
Dr. Petrakis is a Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine and the Director of the Mental Health Service Line at VA Connecticut Healthcare System (VACHS) since July 2010. Dr. Petrakis completed residency training at Yale School of Medicine and then a NIDA-funded addiction psychiatry clinical/research fellowship. She joined the faculty in 1992. Prior to July 2010, she was the Director of the Substance Abuse Treatment Program of the VACHS since 1996. Dr. Petrakis is also the Director of the Addiction Psychiatry Residency at Yale, an ACGME-accredited program and the PI of both an NIAAA-funded and a NIDA-funded training grant (T32).Her research interests are predominately two-fold: (1) finding appropriate treatments for dually diagnosed individuals and (2) understanding the neurobiological mechanisms underlying alcohol dependence. She has received funding from the Department of Defense, NIH-NIAAA, the VA, NARSAD and the Stanley Foundation.
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Marc Potenza, PhD, MD
Steven M. Southwick Professor of Psychiatry and Professor in the Child Study Center and of Neuroscience; Director, Center of Excellence in Gambling Research; Director, Yale Program for Research on Impulsivity and Impulse Control Disorders; Director, Women and Addictive Disorders, Women's Health Research at Yale
Research Interests
Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders
Gambling
Child Psychiatry
Neurobiology
Psychotherapy
Psychiatry and Psychology
Psychiatry
Substance-Related Disorders
Dr. Potenza is a board-certified psychiatrist with sub-specialty training and certification in addiction psychiatry. He has trained at Yale University receiving a combined BS/MS with Honors in Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics and a PhD in Cell Biology, the latter concurrent with the MD through the Medical Scientist Training Program. He completed internship, psychiatric residency and addiction psychiatry fellowship training at Yale. Currently, he is a Professor of Psychiatry, Child Study and Neuroscience at the Yale University School of Medicine where he is Director of the Division on Addictions Research at Yale, the Center of Excellence in Gambling Research, the Yale Research Program on Impulsivity and Impulse Control Disorders, and the Women and Addictive Disorders Core of Women's Health Research at Yale. He is also a Senior Scientist at the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling. He is on the editorial boards of fifteen journals (including editor-in-chief of Current Addiction Reports) and has received multiple national and international awards for excellence in research and clinical care. He has consulted to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Registry of Effective Programs, National Institutes of Health, American Psychiatric Association and World Health Organization on matters of addiction.
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