Because mentorship has a critical influence on trainees’ decision to pursue research as a career and on their success during research training, we chose an individual-centered mentoring strategy by developing a network of mentors for each resident.
The primary mentor will work with the STEPP resident to identify a suitable research project and will oversee all project activities. By the start of PGY-II, the STEPP resident, primary mentor, and executive committee will have worked together to identify three additional faculty members that, together with the primary mentor, will form an individual mentorship team. One member of the mentorship team will serve as the career coach, whose responsibility will be primarily professional and career development.
Research Program Faculty
Karen Cropsey, Psy.D.
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
Her research interests include developing treatment interventions for patients with substance use disorders, with a particular focus on smoking cessation and opioid treatment interventions in disadvantaged populations.
Jeremy Day, Ph.D.
Dept. of Neurobiology
He studies neuronal signal transduction and the integration of ionotropic and metabotropic neurotransmission in brain circuitry controlling mood, reward, and aversion. He has identified many novel mechanisms that control behavioral responses to stress and demonstrated that targeting of these mechanisms improves behavioral responses and reduces anxio-depressive like behaviors in animal models.
Lynn Dobrunz, Ph.D.
Dept. of Neurobiology
Her translational research program uses electrophysiology, pharmacology, mouse genetics, and rodent behavioral testing to study the role of Neuropeptide Y in regulating hippocampal circuits, anxiety behavior, and PTSD.
Yogesh Dwivedi, Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
The major thrust of his research is to elucidate the neurobiological mechanisms associated with depression, early-life stress, and suicidal behavior by integrating basic and clinical neuroscience. More specifically, his research involves the regulation of gene expression through epigenetic and epitranscriptomic mechanisms and their roles in these disorders and whether they can be translated into biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment response.
Aaron Fobian, Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
Aaron Fobian is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology. Her research interests are in pediatric behavioral health, specifically to assess the effects of an adolescent sleep and media use intervention on metabolism and body composition. Her research also assesses functional neurological disorders (FND, conversion disorder), and she developed an intervention for FND called Retraining and Control Therapy (ReACT).
Karen Gamble, Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
The overall goal of her research program is to investigate environmental modulation of circadian clock function in mammalian systems and the contribution of clock disruption to pathological states. A second, related interest of the laboratory is the translation of what we have learned about circadian regulation in animal models to humans, specifically by determining the impact of circadian dysfunction in the early stages of disease.
J. Andrew Hardaway, Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
His research uses laboratory mice to investigate the neuronal and molecular substrates that govern motivation, palatability, taste, and ingestion to develop novel and more effective treatments for obesity and eating disorders. Combined with neural circuit tools like optogenetics, chemogenetics, and biosensors, he maps neural circuit function onto discrete aspects of conserved feeding behavior.
Peter Hendricks, Ph.D.
School of Public Health
His research program focuses on the development of treatments for addiction, including psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies. He also studies the time course and clinical significance for early e-cigarette withdrawal symptoms, and the effect of negative affect withdrawal regulation training for smoking cessation.
Shinichi Kano, M.D., Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
His research program aims to better understand immune modulation of brain function and behavior related to psychiatric disorders by using rodent models and human patient data.
Richard Kennedy M.D., Ph.D.
Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care
His research program focuses on the cognitive and functional consequences of medical disorders, particularly dementia and delirium.
David Knight, Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychology
His research is focused on better understanding the neural substrates of human learning, memory, and emotion using functional MRI, diffusion imaging, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Studies from his lab investigate questions that are important for understanding healthy, as well as dysfunctional, emotion processes. Disruption of these processes plays an important role in the emotional dysfunction associated with mood, anxiety, and stress disorders.
Adrienne Lahti, MD
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
She directs a neuroimaging laboratory focused on studying severe mental illness. She uses a variety of brain imaging techniques, including Positron Emission Tomography, functional MRI, MR Spectroscopy, and diffusion tensor imaging to evaluate the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and the effects of various psychotropic drugs on brain function and biochemistry.
Junghee Lee, Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
Her research program aims to understand cross-diagnostic mechanisms of social dysfunction in severe mental illness. Using a cutting-edge technology and innovative neuroimaging tools, her laboratory at UAB examines complex relationships between brain and social behavior in severe mental illness by focusing on how those relationships evolve over the course of illness and the way in which they are linked to pathophysiological processes.
Li Li, M.D., Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
Her research focuses on the interface between obesity, pre-diabetes, depression, and opioid use disorders. She aims to better understand etiologies of these comorbid conditions and to develop effective treatments.
Matthew Macaluso, D.O.
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
His research is focused on clinical pharmacology and its translation to clinical practice in mood disorders. He has experience in all phases of human testing, which are essential steps before new agents can be used in patients. His research group is dedicated to determining the safety and optimal dosing of significant new medications and to relieve the burden of mental illness on patients and families.
Charity Morgan, Ph.D.
School of Public Health|
Her research focus includes developing and validating statistical methods for clinical trials and building statistical models to optimally fit data collected from patients, particularly those with schizophrenia.
Minae Niwa, Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
The Niwa laboratory focuses on how early psychosocial stress alters brain development and function and affects adult behaviors relevant to stress-associated psychiatric disorders.
Craig Powell, M.D., Ph.D.
Dept. of Neurobiology
His lab investigates cognitive function and dysfunction in disease states such as intellectual disability, autism, and PTSD. Recent work focuses on genetic animal models of autism and intellectual disability and preclinical therapeutic trials.
Lucas Pozzo-Miller, Ph.D.
Dept. of Neurobiology
His research centers on the theme of cellular and synaptic bases of cognitive dysfunction in mouse models of neurodevelopmental disorders associated with intellectual disability and autism, using a combination of cellular imaging, electrophysiology, and behavioral analyses. He also conducts preclinical testing of BDNF-based approaches to improve behavioral deficits in mouse models of Rett syndrome.
Brandon Scott Pruett, M.D., Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
His research is focused on elucidating the role that altered energy metabolism and intracellular pH regulation may play in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia using primarily postmortem brain tissue.
Rosalinda C. Roberts, Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
Her lab focuses on pathology in postmortem schizophrenia and ultrastructure of human postmortem brain. As director of the Alabama Brain Collection, she collaborates with numerous investigators to collect and supply postmortem brain tissue.
Richard C. Shelton, M.D.
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
His research program focuses on interventions to prevent or treat depression and associate problems such as suicide. His work spans from biomarker identification (e.g., epigenetics) to experimental therapeutics.
S. Justin Thomas, Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurobiology
His research is focused on disparities in sleep, circadian rhythms, and a variety of health outcomes, including hypertension, pain, and substance use/ abuse.
Summer Thyme, Ph.D.
Dept. of Neurobiology
Research in the Thyme laboratory focuses on zebrafish models of schizophrenia and autism genes, as well as drug discovery for small molecules that modulate neurodevelopment and could correct abnormalities observed in mutant zebrafish.
Jarred Younger, Ph.D.
Dept. of Psychology
His research focuses on neuroimaging, pharmaceutical, and immune monitoring techniques to better understand chronic pain, fatigue, depressed mood, and cognitive decline. He investigates the impact that addictive drugs, such as opioids, have on the human brain.