Brief Biography:
Since my undergraduate studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, my goal has been
to dedicate my career to the study of brain disorders. Throughout my training, my research has
resulted in a number of significant contributions to the field, reflected by my record of publication and
funding, and my teaching contributions have been recognized by the Harvard University Distinction
in Teaching Award. I began my laboratory training as an undergraduate student in 1998 in the
laboratory of Dr. Francine M Benes at Mclean Hospital. We conducted investigations on post-mortem
changes of D1mRNA in the hippocampus of schizophrenic and bipolar disorder subjects, as well as
the effects of pre-natal stress on the rat hippocampal GABA system.
After completion of my undergraduate studies in 2001, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Sabina
Berretta to work on the role of the amygdala in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. My projects
focused on the identification of neurochemical subtypes of interneurons affected in schizophrenia and
bipolar disorder in post-mortem tissue and in a rodent partial model of schizophrenia. I completed a
graduate program at Harvard University Extension School, obtaining an ALM degree in Biology with
a thesis titled “Parvalbumin Neurons and Chondroitin Sulphate Proteoglycans in the Amygdala and
Entorhinal Cortex: Differences between Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenic Subjects”.
To pursue my interest in the link between circadian rhythms and mental diseases, I went on to
train in the laboratory of Prof. Fred Davis, completing a doctoral program in neurobiology on the role
of VIP in circadian rhythms as well as the circadian regulation of fear entrainment. During that time I
also taught courses in Anatomy and Physiology at both Harvard University and Northeastern
University while continuing my studies of extracellular matrix molecules in schizophrenia at Mclean
Hospital in the laboratory of Dr. Berretta. With the help of the Rappaport Mental Health Scholar
Award, I returned to Mclean Hospital as an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and extended these studies to
another brain region, the thalamus, by identifying links between extracellular matrix abnormalities and
myelin dysfunction in the thalamus of schizophrenic subjects. I am also examining molecules that may be behind circadian rhythm abnormalities contributing to bipolar disorder.
Academic positions:
Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Research interests:
schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, circadian rhythms, neuroanatomy, gene signaling regulation, sleep physiology
What I think of the idea behind WebmedCentral:
open access web based journal