Resident Biographies

The PRP has helped current and past residents in their career development.

Current PRP Residents
 

Katherine Lyman, MDName: Katherine Lyman, MD
Pronouns: She/her
Home town: Cary, North Carolina
Current Year: PGY3
Undergraduate: BA, Music and German Studies, Brigham Young University
Medical School: MD, Stanford University School of Medicine
PRP Mentor: Colleen McClung, PhD
PRP Project: Identifying molecular mechanisms underlying seasonal changes in mood and psychosis 
PRP Techniques: RNA sequencing from postmortem human brain tissue 
Interests outside of medicine: Piano, literature, hiking
 
Selected Publications:

  • Sailani MR, Jahanbani F, Abbott CW, Zia A, Rego S, Winkelmann J, Hopfner F, Lee H, Khan T, Katsanis N, Müller S, Berg D, Lyman K, Mychajliw C, Deuschl G, Bernstein JA, Kuhlenbäumer G, Snyder MP. Candidate Variants in TUB Are Associated With Familial Tremor. PLOS Genetics. 2020; 16(9): e1009010.
  • Wang W, Li C, Chen Q, van der Goes MS, Hawrot J, Yao AY, Gao X, Lu C, Zang Y, Zhang Q, Lyman K, Wang D, Guo B, Wu S, Gerfen CR, Fu Z, Feng G. Striatopallidal dysfunction underlies repetitive behavior in Shank3-deficient model of autism. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2017; 127(5): 1978-1990.
  • Abdeen S, Jabr S, Morse M, Lyman K and Berger E. Report: A Comprehensive Student Support Program in Mental Health. Bethlehem University Journal. 2017; 34: 105-112.

Kalyan Tripathy, MD, PhDName: Kalyan Tripathy, MD, PhD
Pronouns: He/Him
Home town: Kolkata, India
Current year: PGY1

Undergraduate: BA, University of Pennsylvania
Medical School:  MD, Washington University School of Medicine
Graduate school mentor: Joseph Culver, PhD
Graduate school topic: Developing optical neuroimaging methods for human studies of early brain development and clinical applications of neural decoding
Graduate school techniques: High-density diffuse optical tomography, naturalistic movie viewing, multivariate feature regression, machine learning algorithms in MATLAB

Interests outside of medicine: Music (singing, guitar, composition), writing (poetry), fitness (running, weightlifting, pick-up sports), hiking (locally and at national parks)

Selected Publications:

  • Tripathy K, Markow ZE, Fishell AK, Sherafati A, Burns-Yocum TM, Schroeder ML, Svoboda AM, Eggebrecht AT, Anastasio MA, Schlaggar BL, Culver JP. Decoding visual information from high-density diffuse optical tomography neuroimaging data. Neuroimage. 2021 Feb; 1;226:117516.
  • Schroeder ML, Sherafati A, Ulbrich RL, Wheelock MD, Svoboda AM, Klein ED, George TG, Tripathy K, Culver JP, Eggebrecht AT. Mapping cortical activations underlying covert and overt language production using high-density diffuse optical tomography. Neuroimage. 2023 Aug; 276:120190.
  • Walker AK*, Tripathy K*, Restrepo CR, Ge G, Xu Y, Kwong LK, Trojanowski JQ, Lee VM. An insoluble frontotemporal lobar degeneration-associated TDP-43 C-terminal fragment causes neurodegeneration and hippocampus pathology in transgenic mice. Hum Mol Genet. 2015 December; 24(25):7241-54. *Co-first-author publication 

Douglas Teixera Leffa, MD, PhDName: Douglas Teixera Leffa, MD, PhD
Pronouns: He/Him
Home town: Porto Alegre, Brazil
Current year: PGY2
 
Undergraduate/Medical School: MD, PhD, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Graduate school mentor: Luis Augusto Rohde, MD, PhD
Graduate school topic: Neuromodulation in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Graduate school techniques: Randomized clinical trials, epidemiological research, animal models, tDCS, genetics
 
PRP mentor: Tharick Pascoal, MD, PhD and Brooke Molina, PhD
PRP project: Exploring the association between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and Alzheimer's disease
PRP techniques: Epidemiological research, blood biomarkers, neuroimaging, genetics
 
Interests outside of medicine: Reading, boardgames, music
 
Selected Publications:

  • Leffa DT, Ferrari-Souza JP, Bellaver B, Tissot C, Ferreira PCL, Brum WS, Caye A, Lord J, Proitsi P, Martins-Silva T, Tovo-Rodrigues L, Tudorascu DL, Villemagne VL, Cohen AD, Lopez OL, Klunk WE, Karikari TK, Rosa-Neto P, Zimmer ER, Molina BSG, Rohde LA, Pascoal TA; Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Genetic risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder predicts cognitive decline and development of Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology in cognitively unimpaired older adults. Mol Psychiatry. 2023 Mar;28(3):1248-1255.
  • Leffa DT, Grevet EH, Bau CHD, Schneider M, Ferrazza CP, da Silva RF, Miranda MS, Picon F, Teche SP, Sanches P, Pereira D, Rubia K, Brunoni AR, Camprodon JA, Caumo W, Rohde LA. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation vs Sham for the Treatment of Inattention in Adults With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: The TUNED Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2022 Sep 1;79(9):847-856. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.2055.
  • Leffa DT, Caye A, Santos I, Matijasevich A, Menezes A, Wehrmeister FC, Oliveira I, Vitola E, Bau CHD, Grevet EH, Tovo-Rodrigues L, Rohde LA. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder has a state-dependent association with asthma: The role of systemic inflammation in a population-based birth cohort followed from childhood to adulthood. Brain Behav Immun. 2021 Oct;97:239-249. doi: 10.1016/j.bbi.2021.08.004. Epub 2021 Aug 8.

Nur Eken, MDName: H. Nur Eken, MD
Pronouns: She/her
Home town: Adana, Turkey
Current year: PGY2

Undergraduate: BS, Cognitive Science, Yale University
Medical school: MD, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

PRP mentor: Rebecca Price, PhD
PRP project: Investigating underlying mechanisms for combined biological and cognitive training treatments for depression
PRP techniques: Epidemiological and health equity research, neural and cognitive mechanisms of depression and anxiety disorders, interventional psychiatry

Interests outside of medicine: Mixology, ballroom dancing, board games

Selected Publications

  • Eken, HN, Dee, EC, Powers, AR, & Jordan, A. (2021). Racial and ethnic differences in perception of provider cultural competence among patients with depression and anxiety symptoms: a retrospective, population-based, cross-sectional analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry, 8(11), 957-968.
  • Brooks, H, Kichuk, SA, Adams, TG, Koller, WN, Eken, HN, Rance, M, ... & Hampson, M. (2018). Developing image sets for inducing obsessive-compulsive checking symptoms. Psychiatry research, 265, 249-255.
  • Mourgues, C, Hammer, A, Fisher, V, Kafadar, E…..Eken, HN, ... & Powers, AR. (2022). Measuring voluntary control over hallucinations: the Yale Control Over Perceptual Experiences (COPE) scales. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 48(3), 673-683.

Dr. Angela IanniName: Angela Ianni, MD DPhil
Pronouns: She/her
Hometown: Okemos, MI
Current year: PGY4

Undergraduate: BSE, Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan
Medical school: MD, University of California, San Diego
Graduate school: The University of Oxford (NIH Graduate Partnership Program)
Graduate school mentors: Karen Berman, MD and Tim Behrens, DPhil
Graduate school topic: Dopamine and Reward-Guided Behavior
Graduate school techniques: Neuroimaging, computational modeling of behavior

PRP mentor: Alexandre Dombrovski, MD
PRP project: Behavioral and neural markers of decision-making related to suicidal behavior in late-life depression
PRP techniques: Computational modeling of explore-exploit decision-making, fMRI 

Interests outside of medicine: Hiking, rock climbing, soccer

Selected Publications

  • Eisenberg DP, Yankowitz L, Ianni AM, Rubinstein DY, Kohn PD, Hegarty CE, Gregory MD, Apud JA, Berman KF. Presynaptic Dopamine Synthesis Capacity in Schizophrenia and Striatal Blood Flow Change During Antipsychotic Treatment and Medication-Free Conditions. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2017; 42(11):2232-2241.
  • Jocham G, Brodersen KH, Constantinescu AO, Kahn MC, Ianni AM, Walton, ME, Rushworth MF, Behrens TE. Reward-Guided Learning with and without Causal Attribution. Neuron. 2016; 90(1): 177-90.
  • Eisenberg DP, Ianni AM, Wei SM, Kohn PD, Kolachana B, Apud J, Weinberger DR, Berman KF. Brain- derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val(66)Met polymorphism differentially predicts hippocampal function in medication-free patients with schizophrenia. Mol Psychiatry. 2013; 18(6):713-20.

Dr. CeCe WestbrookName: Cecilia Westbrook, MD, PhD
Pronouns: She/her
Home town: Chicago, IL
Current year: PGY5

Undergraduate: BS, Psychology and Biological Sciences, minor in Creative Writing, Carnegie Mellon University
Medical school: MD, PhD, Psychology, University of Wisconsin – Madison
Graduate school mentor: Richard Davidson, PhD
Graduate school topic: Investigating neural mechanisms of worry and developmental trajectories of affective symptomatology
Graduate school techniques: fMRI, psychophysiology, cognitive tasks, questionnaires

PRP mentor: Lauren Hallion, PhD (Pitt Psychology); Cecile Ladouceur, PhD
PRP project: Examining neural mechanisms of real-time perseverative thought using fMRI and extension of this work into adolescents; examining neurodevelopment of anxiety disorders and fMRI markers of treatment response to CBT in adolescents.
PRP techniques: Conventional and machine-learning based fMRI analyses; psychometric analyses of task and questionnaire data.

Interests outside of medicine: Hiking/backpacking, gardening, baking, cats

Selected Publications:

  • Westbrook, CA, Dutcher, J, Kusmierski, S, Creswell, JD, Akpan, E, & Hallion, LS. (2023). Neural correlates of mindful disengagement from worry. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, 132(1), 38.
  • Westbrook CA, Patsenko E, Mumford J, Abramson LY & Davidson RJ. (2018). Frontoparietal processing of stress-relevant information differs in individuals with a negative cognitive style. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 127(5), 437-447.
  • Westbrook CA, Tabibnia G, Julson E, Tindle H & Creswell JD. (2013): Mindful attention reduces neural and self-reported cue-induced craving in smokers. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 8(1), 73-84. 

Some of our Past PRP Residents

 

Dr. Shinny-Yi (Cindy) ChouShinnyi (Cindy) Chou, MD, PhD participated in the PRP between 2017 and 2022. Her research project focused on the endocannabinoid system's alterations in schizophrenia. She was mentored by Robert Sweet, MD and learned techniques in postmortem human tissue processing, immunohistochemistry, rodent behavioral assays of auditory processing, postmortem proteomics, and advanced microscopy. She is currently a T32 fellow in the Training for Transformative Discovery in Psychiatry program, supervised by Dr. Sweet as both her individual mentor and T32 program director. During her T32 training, she is expanding the work completed during her child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship into the investigation of the intersection between schizophrenia and cannabis exposure via postmortem brain samples, focusing on the endocannabinoid CB1 receptor system. Her research has been recognized with awards from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and the Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry (ADMSEP).

Selected Publications:

  • Chou S, Rish KN, Lewis DA, Sweet RA. Terminal type-specific cannabinoid CB1 receptor alterations in patients with schizophrenia: A pilot study. Neurobiol Dis. 2023 Sep; 185:106262. 
  • Chou S, Ranganath T, Fish KN, Lewis DA, Sweet RA. Cell type specific cannabinoid CB1 receptor distribution across the human and non-human primate cortex. Sci Rep. 2022 Jun 10;12(1):9605. 
  • Chou S, Davis C, Li M. Maternal immune activation and repeated maternal separation alter offspring conditioned avoidance response learning and antipsychotic response in male rats. Behav Brain Res. 2021 Apr 9;403:113145. 

Dr. Daniel Wonjae ChungDaniel Wonjae Chung, MD, PhD worked under the mentorship of David Lewis, MD for many years and was a part of the PRP between 2018 and 2022. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow who is supported by the Training for Transformative Discovery in Psychiatry grant and participating in Department's K Review Program. Under the interdisciplinary mentorship from a team of mentors, Wonjae combines biological studies of neural circuits and computational modeling to investigate how the disease process of schizophrenia affects cortical circuitry across multiple levels of resolution, ranging from organization of synaptic proteins, to synaptic microphysiology, and to neural oscillation dynamics. By establishing mechanistic links that integrate these findings, he aims to generate a multi-scale view of cortical circuit abnormalities underlying core cognitive symptoms in schizophrenia. 

Selected Publications:

  • Chung DW*, Geramita MA, Lewis DA. Synaptic Variability and Cortical Gamma Oscillation Power in Schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 2022;179:277-287. *Corresponding author
  • Chung DW, Wills ZP, Fish KN, Lewis DA. Developmental pruning of excitatory synaptic inputs to parvalbumin interneurons in monkey prefrontal cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2017;114:E629-E637. 
  • Chung DW, Fish KN, Lewis DA. Pathological Basis for Deficient Excitatory Drive to Cortical Parvalbumin Interneurons in Schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 2016;173:1131-1139. 

Dr. Kristen EckstrandKristen Eckstrand, MD, PhD worked under the co-mentorship of Mary Phillips, MD and Erika Forbes, PhD as a PRP resident. After holding a postdoctoral scholar appointment, supported by the IMPACT T32 postdoctoral program, directed by Tina Goldstein, PhD, she was appointed to the faculty in 2022. Her research, supported by a K23 award from the NIMH, focuses on the influence of trauma on the adolescent brain, and how trauma-associated changes relate to affective symptoms, with a focus on sexual minority youth. Her research has been recognized with awards from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training.

"The PRP's focus on supportive and quality mentorship made my transition between fields of research (adulthood insulin resistance to adolescent mental health) smooth and exciting. The program's flexibility combined with a collaborative research environment easily facilitates research exploration and accomplishment."

Selected Publications:

  • Eckstrand KL, Forbes EE, Bertocci MA, Chase HW, Greenberg T, Lockovich J, Stiffler R, Aslam HA, Graur S, Bebko G, Phillips ML. Trauma impacts prospective relationships between reward-related ventral striatal and amygdala activity and 1-year future hypo/mania trajectories. Biological Psychiatry. (2020) 89(9):868-877. 
  • Forbes EE, Eckstrand KL, Rofey D, Silk JS. A social affective neuroscience model of risk and resilience in adolescent depression: Preliminary evidence and application to sexual and gender minority youth. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. 2020, S2451-9022(20)30211-1. 
  • Eckstrand KL, Flores LE, Cross M, Silk J, Allen NB, Healey K, Marshal MP, Forbes EE. Social and non-social reward processing and depressive symptoms among sexual minority adolescents. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. (2019) 13:209.  

Dr. Matt GeramitaMatthew Geramita, MD, PhD served as Chief Resident of the PRP in his final year of the PRP (2021-2022) and was mentored by Susanne Ahmari MD PhD (Pitt) and Eric Yttri PhD (CMU). While in the program, he studied the role of the striatum in avoidance and certainty using in in vivo calcium imaging and electrophysiology, computational modeling, and optogenetics. Matt is currently a psychiatrist in the Center for Interventional Psychiatry and a Research Fellow on the Training for Transformative Discovery in Psychiatry grant. 

Selected Publications

  • Chung DW*, Geramita MA*, Lewis DA. Synaptic Variability and Cortical Gamma Oscillation Power in Schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2022 Apr;179(4):277-287. (* contributed equally)
  • Manning EE*, Geramita MA*, Piantadosi SC*, Pierson JL, Ahmari SE. Distinct patterns of abnormal lateral orbitofrontal cortex activity during compulsive grooming and reversal learning normalize after fluoxetine. Biological Psychiatry. 2021 Nov 27;S0006-3223(21)017980-4. (* contributed equally)
  • Geramita MA, Burton SD, Urban NN. Distinct lateral inhibitory circuits drive parallel processing of sensory information in the mammalian olfactory bulb. eLife. 2016;5.

Melanie Grubisha, MD, PhDMelanie Grubisha, MD, PhD participated in the PRP between 2013 and 2017. Her research project was focused on impairments in dendritic morphogenesis in schizophrenia under the mentorship of Robert Sweet, MD. She then held a postdoctoral appointment, supported by the Training for Transformative Discovery in Psychiatry grant. Dr. Grubisha was appointed as a Pitt Psychiatry faculty member in 2019 when she received her K08 award from the National Institute of Mental Health. In addition to her research, she also sees patients one day per week in a homeless clinic in Pittsburgh.

Selected Publications:

  • Grubisha MJ, Sun X, MacDonald ML, Garver M, Sun Z, DeGiosio RA, Lewis DA, Yates NA, Camacho C, Ding Y & Sweet RA. MAP2 is hyperphosphorylated in schizophrenia, altering its function. Mol Psych. 2021 Feb 1.
  • Russell TA, Grubisha MJ, Remmers CL, Kang SK, Forrest MP, Smith KR, Kopeikina KJ, Gao R, Sweet RA, Penzes P. A schizophrenia-linked KALRN coding variant alters neuron morphology, protein function, and transcript stability. Biol Psychiatry. 2018 Mar 15;83(6):499-508. 
  • Grubisha MJ, Lin CW, Tseng GC, Penzes P, Sibille E, Sweet RA. Age-Dependent Increase in Kalirin-9 and Kalirin-12 in Human Orbitofrontal Cortex. Eur J Neurosci. 2016 Oct;44(7):2483-2492. 

Danella Hafeman, MD, PhD

Danella Hafeman, MD, PhD participated in the PRP at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital between 2009 and 2012. Her research project was focused on Bipolar Disorder and neuroimaging, under the mentorship of Mary Phillips, MD. She then held a postdoctoral appointment, supported by the Innovative Methods in Pathogenesis and Child Treatment Training grant. She was appointed as a Pitt Psychiatry faculty member in 2017 when she received a K01 Award from the NIMH.

"The opportunities through the PRP allowed me to explore a new area of research, learning how to analyze and interpret fMRI data. While I had a strong background in statistics (through my PhD in epidemiology), the protected time and strong mentorship facilitated my development as a neuroimaging researcher during my residency and child fellowship."

Selected Publications:

  • Birmaher B, Hafeman DM, Merranko J, Zwicker A, Goldstein B, Goldstein T, Axelson D, Monk K, Hickey MB, Sakolsky D, Iyengar S, Diler R, Nimgaonkar V, Uher R. Role of Polygenic Risk Score in the Familial Transmission of Bipolar Disorder in Youth. JAMA Psychiatry. 2022 Feb 1;79(2):160-168. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.3700. Erratum in: JAMA Psychiatry. 2022 Jun 1;79(6):632. 
  • Hafeman DM, Ostroff N, Feldman J, Hickey MB, Phillips ML, Creswell D, Birmaher B, Goldstein TR. Mindfulness-Based Intervention to Decrease Mood Lability in At-Risk Youth: Preliminary Evidence for Changes in Resting State Functional Connectivity. Journal of Affective Disorders. J Affect Disord. 2020 Nov 1;276:23-29.
  • Hafeman DM, Rooks B, Merranko J, Liao F, Gill MK, Goldstein TR, Diler R, Ryan N, Goldstein BI, Axelson DA, Strober M, Keller M, Hunt J, Hower H, Weinstock LM, Yen S, Birmaher B. Lithium Versus Other Mood Stabilizing Medications in a Longitudinal Study of Bipolar Youth. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Volume 59, Issue 10, 2020, Pages 1146-1155.

Dr. Gil HoftmanGil Hoftman, MD, PhD served as Chief Resident of the PRP, and completed his psychiatry residency at the University of California-Los Angeles where he is a now faculty member. He was a mentee of David Lewis, MD for many years. Using studies of postmortem human brain tissue research, he aims to understand the neural substrate of altered cognition in schizophrenia and its occurrence during postnatal development. He was also a fellow in the child and adolescent psychiatry program, and appreciated the flexibility provided by the Residency Program Directors to tailor his residency training to his individual clinical and research needs.

"The PRP helped me by providing multiple mentors for guidance and support, and by protecting time to conduct research without compromising my clinical training. Pitt's thriving research community deepened my passion and commitment to research!"

Selected Publications:

  • Hoftman GD, Dienel SJ, Bazmi HH, Zhang Y, Chen K and Lewis DA. Altered Gradients of Glutamate and GABA Transcripts in the Cortical Visuospatial Working Memory Network in Schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 2018; doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.11.029. 
  • Hoftman GD*, Datta D* and Lewis DA. Layer 3 excitatory and inhibitory circuitry in the prefrontal cortex: Developmental trajectories and alterations in schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry. 2017; 81(10):862-73. *Co-first authors.
  • Fish KN*, Hoftman GD*, Sheikh W, Kitchens M and Lewis DA. Parvalbumin-containing chandelier and basket cell boutons have distinctive modes of maturation in monkey prefrontal cortex. J Neuroscience, 2013; 33(19):8352–8358. *Co-first authors.

Joshua Krivinko, MD

Joshua Krivinko, MD participated in the PRP from 2018 to 2022. A mentee of Robert Sweet, MD, his PRP project focused on uncovering therapeutic targets for psychotic symptoms in Alzheimer disease. The techniques he used during his training included mouse transgenic models, primary neuronal cell culture, human post mortem tissue studies, and quantitative proteomics. He is currently a PGY5 Consultation-liaison psychiatry fellow. 

Selected Publications

  • Krivinko JM, Koppel J, Savonenko A, Sweet RA. Animal models of Psychosis in Alzheimer Disease. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. Jan 2020; 28(1): 1-19 
  • Krivinko JM, Erickson SL, Ding Y, Sun Z, Penzes P, MacDonald ML, Yates, NA, Ikonomovic MD, Lopez OL, Sweet RA, Kofler J. Synaptic proteome compensation and resilience to psychosis in Alzheimer Disease. American Journal of Psychiatry. Oct 2018; 175(10): 999-1009. 
  • Krivinko JM, Erickson SL, Abrahamson EE, Wills ZP, Ikonomovic MD, Penzes P, Sweet RA. Kalirin reduction rescues psychosis-associated behavioral deficits in APPswe/PSEN1dE9 transgenic mice. Neurobiology of Aging. June 2017; 54: 59-70. 

Heather Joseph, DOHeather Joseph, DO participated in the PRP program from 2013 to 2016 and conducted research on familial transmission of ADHD and paternal parenting styles, mentored by Brooke Molina, PhD. She joined our faculty as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics in 2019. She received a KL2 career award from the CTSI as well as a K23 from the NIH.

"The PRP has the flexibility and support to meet the needs of trainees at all levels of research experience. This includes individuals who first explore a research career upon starting residency, like I did. I have benefited from the strong research infrastructure here, and had the opportunity to take courses through the Institute for Clinical Research and Education (ICRE) during residency."

Selected Publications:

  • Joseph HM, Kennedy TM, Gnagy EM, Perlman SB, Pelham WE & Molina BS. (2019) Fathers with childhood ADHD, parenting, and their young children's behavior: Offspring of the Pittsburgh ADHD Longitudinal Study (PALS). Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 50(1), 35-44.
  • Joseph HM, Farmer C, Kipp H, Kolko D, Aman M, McGinley J, ... & Molina BS (2019) Attendance and engagement in parent training predict child behavioral outcomes in children pharmacologically treated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and severe aggression. Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology, 29(2), 90-99.
  • Molina BS, Kipp HL, Joseph HM, Engster SA, Harty SC, Dawkins M, ... & Bangalore SS (2019) Stimulant diversion risk among college students treated for ADHD: Primary care provider prevention training. Academic Pediatrics, S1876-2859(18)30551-5.

Dr. Ian KratnerIan Kratter, MD, PhD is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. As a PRP resident he studied neuropsychiatric predictors of cognitive outcomes following deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease under the guidance of an interdisciplinary team of mentors that included a functional neurosurgeon, a geriatric psychiatrist,  and a neuropsychologist. By calculating volumes of tissue activation and performing connectomic analyses on each patient, they worked to better understand how pre-operative clinical phenotypes might interact with local and network effects of deep brain stimulation to produce variation in post-operative outcomes.

Selected Publications:

  • Kratter IH, Zahed H, Lau A, Tsvetkov AS, Daub AC, Weiberth KF, Gu X, Saudou F, Humbert S, Yang WX, Osmand A, Steffan JS, Masliah E, Finkbeiner S. Serine 421 regulates mutant Huntingtin toxicity and clearance in mice. J Clin Invest. 2016; 126(9):3585-97.
  • Lee JM, Kim KH, Shin A, Chao MJ, Abu Elneel K, Gillis T, Mysore JS, Kaye JA, Zahed H, Kratter IH, Daub AC, Finkbeiner S, Li H, Roach JC, Goodman N, Hood L, Myers RH, MacDonald ME, Gusella JF. Sequence- Level Analysis of the Major European Huntington Disease Haplotype. Am J Hum Genet. 2015; 97(3):435-44.
  • Kratter IH, Richardson RM, Karp JF. DBS in major depression. In Deep Brain Stimulation: Techniques and Practice, edited by William S. Anderson, New York, New York: Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc. In press. 

Dr. Manivel RengasamyManivel Rengasamy, MD was appointed to our faculty in 2022 after being a postdoctoral scholar in the T32 Child and Adolescent Research Training program. He joined the PRP in 2015. His research centers around the role of cytokines in depression, with an ongoing research study supported by AACAP’s Pilot Research Award. His research has received awards at the national level from the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine.  He also initiated a quality improvement project at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital involving brief telephone interventions to patients after discharge from inpatient adolescent psychiatric unit.  

"The PRP was integral in providing me the opportunities and mentorship to developing my research career, particularly in being flexible in providing time to pursue my desired research activities."

Selected Publications:

  • Rengasamy M, Marsland A, McClain L, Kovats T, Walko T, Pan L & Price RB. (2021). Linking childhood trauma and cytokine levels in depressed adolescents. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 133, 105398.
  • Rengasamy M, Woody M, Kovats T, Siegle G & Price RB. (2021). Whats in a Face? Amygdalar sensitivity to an emotional threatening faces task and transdiagnostic internalizing disorder symptoms in participants receiving attention bias modification training. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1-10.
  • Rengasamy M, Sylvester C, Shulman J & Pizon A. (2020). Contemporary characteristics and lethality correlates of serious suicide attempts in children and adolescents. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 50(3), 714-723.

Alfredo Sklar, MD, PhDAlfredo Sklar, MD, PhD worked closely with his mentor, Dean Salisbury, PhD, during his time in the PRP. He also served as the PRP chief resident. He was appointed to our faculty in 2022 and his work focuses on characterizing impairments in visual processing and selective attention as well as their impact on functional outcomes among individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders following their first psychotic break. Work in the Clinical Neurophysiology Research Laboratory provided him the opportunity to expand his expertise in human multimodal imaging techniques including EEG, MEG, and structural MRI.

Selected Publications:

  • Sklar AL, Coffman BA & Salisbury DF. (2021). Fronto-parietal network function during cued visual search in the first-episode schizophrenia spectrum. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 141, 339-345.
  • Sklar AL, Coffman BA & Salisbury DF. (2020). Localization of early-stage visual processing deficits at schizophrenia spectrum illness onset using magnetoencephalography. Schizophrenia bulletin, 46(4), 955-963.
  • Sklar AL, Coffman BA, Haas G, Ghuman A, Cho R, & Salisbury DF. (2020). Inefficient visual search strategies in the first-episode schizophrenia spectrum. Schizophrenia research, 224, 126-132.