Core Members
These are faculty recruited by BHI and the leadership of BHI Working Groups.
We currently have several ongoing recruitments- in addiction, Alzheimer disease, auditory neuroscience and early Intervention in ASD. All these new neuroscience faculty will join BHI as Core Investigators.
Gary Aston-Jones, PhD
Director, Brain Health Institute
Murray and Charlotte Strongwater Endowed Chair in Neuroscience and Brain Health
- Gary Aston-Jones Lab
- Research Programs
Wayne W. Fisher, PhD, BCBA-D
Henry Rutgers Endowed Professor of Pediatrics, RWJMS, Director of Rutgers Center for Autism Research, Education and Services (RUCARES), Director of CSH-RUCARES and the Severely Affected Behavior Disorders in Children Program at CSH.
Luciano D'Adamio, MD, PhD
Herbert and Jacqueline Klein Endowed Chair in Alzheimer's Disease and Neurodegeneration Research, Associate Director of BHI for Alzheimer’s Disease and Neurodegeneration Research. Professor of Pharmacology, Physiology & Neuroscience, Professor of Neurology at NJMS. Website
Michal Schnaider Beeri, PhD
Krieger-Klein Endowed Chair in Neurodegeneration Research, Director of Herbert and Jacqueline Krieger Alzheimer’s and Dementia Clinical Research and Treatment Center Professor of Neurology at RWJMS.
David H. Zald, PhD
Henry Rutgers Term Chair, Professor of Psychiatry, RWJMS, Director of Center for Advance Human Brain Imaging Research (CAHBIR). Website
Danielle M. Dick, PhD
Greg Brown Endowed Chair, Professor of Psychiatry, RWJMS, Director of Rutgers Addiction Research Center (RUARC). Dr. Dick's program of research broadly focuses on characterizing genetic contributions to substance use disorders, and applying basic, etiological research findings to inform prevention and intervention.
Detlev Boison, PhD
Vice Chair of Research and Training, Dept. of Neurosurgery
Professor, Dept. of Neurosurgery, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Professor, Dept. of Neurosurgery, New Jersey Medical School. Website
Cathleen Piazza, PhD
Professor, Dept. of Applied Psychology, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Director of Pediatric Feeding Disorders Program, Children's Specialized Hospital.
R. Christopher Pierce, PhD
Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Assistant Director for Education and Training in BHI.
Dr. Pierce's lab is dedicated to identifying the neuronal substrates underlying cocaine craving and addiction. Lab Website.
Ying-Xian Pan, MD, PhD
Professor, Dept. of Anesthesiology, New Jersey Medical School. Dr. Pan studies the mechanisms of opioid actions, providing the foundation of developing novel drugs for pain treatment. The goal of his research is to understand the mechanisms and functions of mu opioid receptor gene for developing novel drugs to control pain and substance use disorders. Link to Dr. Pan's personal page and lab websites.
Kristina M. Jackson, PhD
Professor of Psychiatry, RWJMS, Associate Director of RARC. Dr. Jackson’s research largely centers on the etiology and course of substance use among adolescents and young adults. She is an expert in the application of quantitative methods to the study of health behavior and has been funded by a mid-career award to apply developmental methods to research in substance use.
Steven Levison, PhD
Professor, RBHS-NJMS- Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience.
Vice-Chair of the Neurodegeneration & Injury FAWG
Website
Robin L. Davis, PhD
Professor, Cell Biology & Neuroscience, RU-NB
Associate Director, Brain Health Institute
Website
Zhiping Pang, PhD
Professor, RBHS-RWJMS, Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology.
Vice-Chair of the Motivational & Affective Neuroscience FAWG
Tibor Rohacs, PHD, M.D
Professor, NJMS, Department of Pharmacology, Physiology & Neuroscience
Vice-Chair of the Cognitive & Sensory Neuroscience FAWG
Sangmi Chung, PhD
Professor, BHI/RWJMS-Department of Neurosurgery. Dr. Chung aims to find better treatments for cortical interneuron-associated brain disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders, by creating inhibitory interneurons from induced pluripotent stem cells and studying their abnormalities.
Ethan Cowan, PhD
Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, New Jersey Medical School and Associate Director of the RARC. Dr. Cowan’s research focuses on pharmacologic interventions for opioid use disorder. He is a clinical trials researcher with more than 20 years of experience designing and leading multisite clinical trials focused on Emergency Department based interventions for HIV, Hepatitis C and Substance Use Disorders.
Mi-Hyeon Jang, PhD
Associate Professor, Dept. of Neruosurgery, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
Dr. Jang conducts studies to identify potential mechanisms that can prevent cognitive dysfunction in neurological, neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, with a goal of developing effective regenerative therapies to treat these dysfunctions.
Yong Kim, PhD
Associate Professor, Dept. of Neruosurgery, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
Dr. Kim is interested in molecular and cellular compensatory mechanisms by which the brain maintains cellular homeostasis or repair in response to risk factors of neurodegenerative diseases or psychiatric disorders.
Avram Holmes, PhD,
Associate Professor, RWJMS- Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Holmes lab studies fundamental organization of large-scale human brain networks, with a particular focus on higher-level cognition and the intersection of emotion and cognition. Using a multi-scale approach, the lab studies phenomena across levels, from genes and molecules through cells, circuits, networks, and behavior. Website
Brian Greer, PhD, BCBA-D
Associate Professor, RWJMS- Department of Pediatrics, Assistant Director CSH-RUCARES. Oversees the Severe Behavior Disorders in Children Program.
Nima Toosizadeh, PhD,
Associate Professor, SHP- Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Sciences. Dr. Toosizadeh’s research focus is computational model, sensor-based engineering approach, and machine learning tools to diagnose and treat older adults with aging-related conditions, focusing on frailty and cognitive impairment assessment and fall rehabilitation.
Maria Chiara Manzini, PhD
Associate Professor, RBHS-RWJMS, Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology.
Vice-Chair of the Neurodevelopment FAWG
Hyung Jin Ahn, PhD
Assistant Professor, NJMS- Department of Pharmacology, Physiology & Neuroscience. Hyung Jin's lab studies molecular mechanisms underlying cerebrovascular deficits in Alzheimer's Disease (AD), investigating cerebrovascular dysfunction and blood-brain barrier damage in rodent AD models and postmortem specimens of AD patients. Lab Website
David J. Barker, PhD
Assistant Professor, RU-NB-SAS- Department of Psychology. David is interested in cutting edge technologies to interrogate neural circuits involved in psychiatric disorders with a goal of better understanding the maladaptive processes that affect the brains of individuals afflicted with drug addiction and comorbid mental disorders. Lab Website.
Miriam Bocarsly, PhD
Assistant Professor, NJMS- Department of Pharmacology, Physiology & Neuroscience. Chair of the Junior Faculty Working Group. Miriam’s lab uses a multidisciplinary approach to understand the neural circuitry regulating feeding and motivated behaviors. She is interested in understanding how these mechanisms are affected in disease states, such as obesity. Lab Website.
Ioana Carcea, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, NJMS- Department of Pharmacology, Physiology & Neuroscience. Ioana is interested in how mammals process social information, and the neuronal mechanisms by which this information impacts brain states, neuronal plasticity and behavior. Lab Website.
Morgan H. James, PhD
Assistant Professor, RWJMS- Department of Psychiatry. Morgan is interested in understanding the neural basis of psychiatric illnesses to help develop effective treatments. His lab is interested in studying illnesses characterized by aberrant motivation, including substance use disorders, depression, and eating disorders. Lab Website.
Anna Konova, PhD
Assistant Professor, UBHC/RWJMS- Department of Psychiatry. My primary research areas of interest are decision neuroscience and computational psychiatry. This work combines fMRI, computational modeling, and patient populations to address questions related to how we construct value and how value is modulated by subjective states and drug addiction. Lab Website.
Todd Mowery, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/RWJMS- Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery. My research program investigates how early auditory and visual experience influences the development of the cortico- and thalamostriatal circuits that govern perceptual action selection. We explore how abnormal developmental experience can impair striatally-mediated learning.
Mark A. Rossi, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/RWJMS- Department of Psychiatry and Child Health Institute of NJ. The Rossi lab uses in vivo two-photon calcium imaging, electrophysiology, and genetic methods to probe how distributed brain circuits regulate feeding, motivated behavior, and obesity.
Lab Website.
Marc Tambini, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/NJMS- Department of Pharmacology, Physiology & Neuroscience.
The Tambini lab is interested in understanding the effect AD-causing mutations have on endolysosomal/exosomal function, using a variety of techniques, including cell culture and novel knock-in rats.
Ying Xu, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/NJMS- Department of Anesthesiology. The Xu lab studies mechanisms by which genetics, environmental and lifestyle factors affects risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Specific research interests include the role of RNA modification in alcohol-induced AD and the role of mitochondrial phosphodiestrases in AD and related dementias.
Justin D. Yao, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/RWJMS- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. My lab is interested in how sensory information is integrated to guide perceptual decisions, and the neural mechanisms that link sensory impairments with cognitive dysfunction. Lab Website.
Tejbeer Kaur, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/RWJMS- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. In the Kaur Lab, the research broadly aims to understand the complex biology and interactions of immune cells and their effector molecules with the sensory cells of the inner ear and how these interactions influence hearing, hearing loss and sensory cell development, degeneration, repair, survival, and plasticity.
Soha Saleh, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/SHP- Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Sciences. My lab is interested in into neural networks involved in motor learning and control, and neuroplasticity in populations with motor and cognitive deficits due to brain injury, spinal cord injury, and Multiple Sclerosis.
Andrew Westbrook, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/RWJMS- Department of Psychiatry. My lab studies neuromodulator systems regulating higher order cognitive function, investigating the role of striatal dopamine in learning and decision-making. Studies combine pharmacology and TMS, with fMRI, EEG, eyetracking, and computational modeling of behavior.
Linden Parkes, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/RWJMS- Department of Psychiatry. Vice Chair of the Junior Faculty Working Group. Dr. Parkes is a computational neuroscientist. The central goal of his research is to better understand mental illness through brain research. He uses magnetic resonance imaging and draws on tools from network science and dynamical systems to build statistical models that forecast the emergence of developmental psychopathology.
Jill Rabinowitz, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/RARC/RWJMS- Department of Psychiatry. My research spans the substance use continuum and ranges from preventing substance use initiation to improving treatment engagement, retention, and care of individuals in recovery from substance use disorders. We also study the influence of social determinants and individual characteristics on the developmental course of substance use, particularly among diverse populations.
Noelle Stiles, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/RWJMS- Department of Neurology. The Stiles lab studies how the senses cooperate with each other, resolve conflicting signals, and change when one sense is removed or restored. We use neural imaging and multisensory psychophysics to investigate enhanced crossmodal plasticity in low vision and blind populations, and in patients using sensory substitution devices and retinal prostheses.
Nathan Wages, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/SHP- Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Sciences. My research focuses on pragmatic approaches to identify neuromuscular mechanisms of muscle weakness, physical function/mobility limitations, and fatigue with aging, injury, and neurodegenerative disease. My lab utilizes novel interventional strategies to enhance physical function and mobility in older adults and in individuals with orthopedic and neurological disabilities.
Marilyn Piccirillo, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/RARC/RWJMS- Department of Psychiatry. My research focuses on expanding initiatives for measurement-based and person-centered care using smartphone-based methods to improve the scope and precision of clinical assessments and treatments, particularly for those with co-occurring mental health and substance use problems.
Sarah Brislin, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/RARC/RWJMS- Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Brislin focuses on determining biological mechanisms that contribute to the expression and development of externalizing behavior in adolescence. She is interested in understanding the biological, environmental, and developmental influences on the emergence, persistence, and desistance of antisocial behavior and substance use in adolescence and early adulthood.
Sharon Sanz Simon, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/NJMS- Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Sanz Simon’s research is focused on sociocultural determinants and individual characteristics that influence risk and resilience to cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) in diverse populations. She also investigates the effects and mechanisms of non-pharmacological lifestyle interventions in aging. She has a particular interest in integrating neuroimaging, technology, and digital biomarkers into cognitive intervention and physical exercise programs.
Salman Qasim, PhD
Assistant Professor, BHI/RWJMS – Department of Neurosurgery. Dr. Qasim’s lab investigates how cells and circuits in the human brain support complex cognitive processes like decision-making, emotion, and particularly memory. To do so, the lab studies how cognitive experiments alter direct-brain recordings (using intracranial EEG) in neurosurgical patients. The goal of this research is to use these findings to develop new therapeutic approaches for neurological and psychiatric disorders.