The following is listing of some of the clinical and basic research scientists within the UCSF Department of Psychiatry.
Faculty members: If you are not included on this page and would like to be, please send an email to [email protected] with a brief description of your research focus.
Erin C. Accurso, PhD - treatment outcome for youth with eating disorders, mental health services research, dissemination and implementation
Bibhav Acharya, MD - global mental health, implementation and assessment of mental health services provided by non-specialists
Brian T. Anderson, MD, MSc - mutual aid, addiction, end of life, drug ethnography, anthropology of religion, science technology studies
Shea Andrews, PhD - understanding the role of Alzheimer’s disease genetic and non-genetic risk loci in cognitive decline, as well as creating predictive models for assessing the risk of individuals in developing dementia
Joaquin A. Anguera, PhD - characterizing and remediating cognitive control deficiencies using digital technologies
Lauren Asarnow, PhD - sleep as a potential target for intervention in the prevention and treatment of mental and physical health problems
Deborah E. Barnes, PhD, MPH - identification of factors that may protect against dementia and other geriatric neuropsychiatric disorders
Steven L. Batki, MD - psychopharmacology clinical trials in addictive disorders including alcohol, stimulants, and opioids, with a focus on impulsivity and co-occurring disorders such as PTSD and traumatic brain injury
Joshua Berke, PhD - basic neurobiology of reward learning, motivation and decision-making, and their relationships to addiction
Renée L. Binder, MD - violence and suicide risk assessment, criminalization of the mentally ill
Somer Bishop, PhD - behavioral phenotyping of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) across the lifespan, differential diagnosis between ASD and neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD), moderators (especially sex, age, IQ, and language) of ASD symptom manifestation and symptom measurement
Brian Borsari, PhD - development and implementation of brief motivational interventions, social influences on substance use, mHealth, and in-session processes of behavior change
William Byerley, MD - molecular genetic studies of schizophrenia and Manic Depressive Disorder
Amy L. Byers, PhD, MPH - epidemiology of late-life mental health
Sabrina Darrow, PhD - youth psychotherapy research, clinical utility of behavioral assessments, implementation and services research
Kevin L. Delucchi, PhD - statistics, drug abuse, alcohol, clinical trials
Carly Demopoulos, PhD - using multimodal brain imaging and neuropsychological characterization to understand the neurobiology underlying sensory processing and sensory dysfunction in autism and related neurodevelopmental and genetic disorders and the relation of sensory dysfunction to verbal and nonverbal communication impairments and sleep problems
Tomasso Di Ianni, PhD - harnessing the medical benefits of translational modalities like ultrasound imaging and therapeutic focused ultrasound to make a substantial impact on the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders
Elissa S. Epel, PhD - cell aging, psychoneuroendocrinology, stress and coping, insulin resistant syndrome (aka Metabolic Syndrome)
Jennifer Felder, PhD - women’s health during pregnancy and early parenting, including novel risk factors for depression and interventions for poor sleep
Judith Ford, PhD - brain imaging (fMRI and EEG) in schizophrenia
Susanna Fryer, PhD - i) applying MRI and EEG techniques to study cognitive features and brain alterations that underlie risk for, and conversion to, psychopathology (with an emphasis on motivation and self-control) and ii) the brain-based mechanisms of psychotherapeutic intervention
Lauren Haack, PhD - accessible and culturally appropriate evidence-based services for traditionally underserved youth and families worldwide (strivelab.ucsf.edu)
Melissa Hagan, PhD - how stress and adversity in childhood impact functioning at different stages of the life span, particularly the parent-child relationship, intergenerational processes of risk and resilience, and the design of effective family-based interventions
Sharon M. Hall, PhD - behavioral and pharmacological treatment of substance abuse
Stephen P. Hinshaw, PhD - developmental psychopathology, risk and protective factors in the development of behavioral and emotional disorders, mechanisms underlying improved outcomes in clinical trials, the stigmatization of mental illness and its prevention
Mardi J. Horowitz, MD - impact of stress, loss, defense mechanisms, identity and person-schematic change processes.
Sabra S. Inslicht, PhD - PTSD neurobiology, neuroendocrinology, fear conditioning, sex differences
Reese T. Jones, MD - drug dependence
Raj K. Kalapatapu, MD, PhD - substance use disorders, cognition, emergency psychiatry, epidemiology, biostatistics, data analysis
Young Shin Kim, MD, PhD - genetic epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), developmental psychopathology, bullying, suicide, stigma (social death), public health policy
Rachel Kramer, PhD - evaluating protective factors against eating disorder development, understanding factors that impact eating disorder treatment and symptom severity, and studying the impact of eating disorders on families
Andrew Krystal, MD, MS - sleep disorders, mood and anxiety spectrum disorders
Daniel Le Grange, PhD - psychosocial treatment outcomes research for adolescents with eating disorders
Yue Leng, PhD - link between sleep and neurodegeneration in older adults with a focus on the relationship between napping, sleep, circadian rhythms and risk of neurodegenerative diseases (moonlait.ucsf.edu)
Kaja LeWinn, DSc - identifying modifiable characteristics of the social environment that may be targeted to promote resilience to mental health disorders in community based settings like schools
Alicia F. Lieberman, PhD - mental health problems and traumatic stress responses in infancy and early childhood; attachment disorders, parenting problems in the birth-to-five age range, treatment outcome research to close the gap in evidence-based treatment for minority young children and their families
Rachel Loewy, PhD - schizophrenia; prodromal psychosis; recent-onset psychosis; transitional age youth; clinical assessment; community partnerships
Thomas L. Lowe, MD - Tourette's Disorder
Scott Mackin, PhD - assessment of cognitive functioning pre and post treatment; identifying cognitive phenotypes of psychiatric disorders; identifying neuropsychiatric symptoms of underlying neurodegenerative disease in older adults; evaluating the ipact of cognitive impairment and depression on functional status; training on the use and interpretation of cognitive screening tools
Christina Mangurian, MD - mental health services research, schizophrenia, metabolic effects of antipsychotic medications, health disparities research.
Devanand Manoli, MD, PhD - basic neuroscience approaches to understand the neurobiology of social attachment, and how this is disrupted in the context of neuropsychiatric illness
Ashley E. Mason, PhD - the biological and psychological experiences of reward-driven eating
Carmen L. Masson, PhD - drug abuse and HIV prevention, health services research and nicotine dependence
Daniel Mathalon, PhD, MD - functional MRI and EEG/event-related potential studies of schizophrenia, including prodromal period prior to illness onset. Focus on neural correlates of sensory, perceptual, cognitive and clinical symptoms of psychosis.
Caravella McCuistian, PhD, MA - tobacco usage and cessation, and racial equity in substance use disorder treatment
Keith McBurnett, PhD - hormonal factors in disruptive behavior disorders, developmental psychopathology, classification and treatment outcome
Susan Meffert, MD, MPH - global mental health treatment and implementation research for the most common disorders among adults in low and middle income countries (depression and anxiety). Recent and current trials with Darfur refugees in Cairo, Sichuan earthquake survivors and HIV+ women in Kenya affected by gender based violence
Brian Mohlenhoff, MD - posttraumatic stress disorder and the effects of poor sleep in military veterans using brain imaging techniques
Anna Victoria Molofsky, MD, PhD - the role of glial cells in brain development and synapse formation
J. Craig Nelson, MD - late-life depression and treatment-resistant depression
Thomas C. Neylan, MD - PTSD neurobiology and treatment research, sleep-wake physiology, daytime fatigue and performance, neuroendocrinology, gene microarray, brain imaging, and Phase II & III clinical trials.
Aoife O'Donovan, MPsychSc, PhD - identifying the psychological and biological factors that account for the adverse effects of psychological stress, and ultimately driving the development of targeted interventions to reduce such negative effects of stress
Joe Pierre, MD - schizophrenia and early intervention for young persons at high risk for psychosis
Linda J. Pfiffner, PhD - treatment outcome for ADHD and related disruptive behavior problems, development of integrated home-school interventions for ADHD-Inattentive Type and the role of family factors in developmental models of child psychopathology
Aric A. Prather, PhD - sleep, stress, psychoneuroimmunology, social determinants of health
Erin Reilly, PhD - characterizing maintenance mechanisms and shared features of anxiety and eating disorders, and adapting behavioral treatments to meet the needs of non-responders
Victor I. Reus, MD - behavioral endocrinology, particularly endocrine effects of stress and behavioral effects of CRF, ACTH and glucocorticoids, genetics of bipolar mood disorder, genetics of Tourette Disorder; pharmacogenetics and psychopharmacology
Anne Richards, MD, MPH - stress-related sleep disturbances and mental illness
Demian Rose, MD, PhD - early psychosis, clinical outcome measures, psychotherapy for psychosis
Danielle Roubinov, PhD - pathways and mechanisms through which exposure to adversity early in life shapes children’s trajectories of physical and psychological health
John L.R. Rubenstein, MD, PhD - development of the forebrain
Stephan J. Sanders, PhD, BMBS - bioinformatic and genomic approaches to understanding the etiology of neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Intellectual Disability (ID). Research topics include: gene discovery, mechanism of sex bias, contribution of multiple risk factors, and convergence of gene function to identify pathology.
Derek D. Satre, PhD - alcohol and drug treatment services research, treatment access, effects of drinking on health, psychotherapy, psychiatric comorbidity
Danielle Schlosser, PhD - neuroscience-informed digital health interventions to treat motivational impairments in individuals with schizophrenia and depression
Martha Shumway, PhD - mental health services research, measurement, preference/utility assessment, cost-effectiveness analysis, schizophrenia, research design, data analysis, mixed methods research, cognition, trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder, co-occuring conditions, psychiatric and medical emergency services, involuntary treatment, public sector care, underserved populations
Vikaas Sohal, MD, PhD - basic science research about how microcircuits in the prefrontal cortex process information, and how this may be disrupted in psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia
James L. Sorensen, PHD - substance abuse and mental health, prevention and treatment of AIDS and other infectious diseases
Matthew W. State, MD, PhD - genetics and genomics of developmental neuropsychiatric disorders, with a particular interest in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Tourette Disorder (TD), and Childhood-Onset Schizophrenia (COS)
Irina Strigo, PhD - brain imaging (FMRI, DTI, ASL, PET-MR) of emotional pain in depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, traumatic brain injury; pain vulnerability in psychiatric disorders
Laurence H. Tecott, MD, PhD - molecular genetics of serotonin system regulation of behavior
Jason Thompson, PhD - trauma recovery, contemplative neuroscience, integrative medicine, and global mental health
Marina Tolou-Shams, PhD - developing evidence-based mental health, substance abuse and HIV risk reduction interventions for court-involved, non-incarcerated (CINI) juvenile offenders
D. Andrew Tompkins, MD, MHS - pain treatment in persons on medication- assisted treatment, behavioral pharmacology, medications development for substance use disorders, opioid use disorder treatment linkage and integration
Jeanne M. Tschann, PhD - family relationships and adolescent functioning, relationship dynamics and condom use among Latino adolescents, obesity among Mexican American children, research with Latino populations
Janice Y. Tsoh, PhD - nicotine dependence treatment in special populations, co-occurring mental and substance use disorders
Susan M. Voglmaier, MD, PhD - cellular and molecular neurobiology, vesicle trafficking and neurotransmitter release
Constance M. Weisner, DrPH, MSW - alcohol and drug epidemiology, access and utilization, treatment outcome and cost effectiveness
Daniel S. Weiss, PhD - phenomenology and psychosocial treatment of PTSD in emergency personnel
Lauren A. Weiss, PhD - understanding the genetic and molecular basis of autism
Owen M. Wolkowitz, MD - psychoneuroendocrinology, particularly effects of stress and stress hormones on the brain (glucocorticoids, neurosteroids, neurotropic factors), psychopharmacology of depression and anxiety
Josh D. Woolley, MD, PhD - understanding the mechanisms and effects of oxytocin and psychedelic compounds to find new therapeutic treatments for a variety of psychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia, mood, disorders, chronic pain, mood symptoms in Parkinson's disease, PTSD, and substance abuse
Kristine Yaffe, MD - understanding the mechanisms that cause cognitive decline, identifying novel risk factors for cognitive impairment, and looking for strategies to prevent and treat cognitive disorders
Tony Y. Yang, MD, PhD - translational research in adolescent and general adult depression using state-of-the-art functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) methods to understand the underlying neurobiology of depression and translate this understanding into helping improve the clinical diagnosis and treatment
Mark von Zastrow, MD, PhD - cellular neurobiology, psychopharmacology and drug abuse
