Harvard Catalyst Profiles

My primary scientific aim is to establish translational neuroimaging models to develop novel treatments for addiction, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative disorders. I maintain active clinical and preclinical neuroimaging programs involving magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI (fMRI), and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) studies relevant to substance dependence, schizophrenia, PTSD, and Parkinson’s Disease. I am Director of the Translational Imaging Laboratory at McLean Hospital. I oversee implementation and optimization of animal imaging protocols that form a translational bridge to human neuroimaging studies. I recently initiated research into novel survey and biomarker methods to identify individuals at risk for suicide.

I serve as a Member of Institutional Review Board 1 of the Partners Human Research Committee.

I actively participate as a mentor of young investigators at McLean Hospital and elsewhere. I am a Co-Director of the Training in Drug Abuse and Brain Imaging T32 postdoctoral program (PI: Lukas).

I am very interested in scientific communications and served as a member of the Media Relations Committee for the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD). I served as Chair of that Committee from 2005-2013 and subsequently on the Board of Directors of the College.

In summary, my aims are to use neuroimaging to better diagnose and treat addiction, psychiatric, and neurodegenerative disorders, to mentor and train the next generation of neuroimaging researchers, and to improve communication of scientific information to the public.