Core Members
These are faculty recruited and/or directly supported by BHI grants.
We currently have several ongoing recruitments- the Director of Rutgers Addiction Research Center and the Greg Brown Endowed Chair, Krieger-Klein Endowed Chair in Neurodegeneration Research, an Assistant Professor in Human Brain Imaging Research and Motivational & Affective Neuroscience. 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
Robin L. Davis, PhD
Associate Director, Brain Health Institute
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
David H. Zald, PhD
Henry Rutgers Term Chair, Professor of Psychiatry, RWJMS, Director of Center for Advance Human Brain Imaging Research (CAHBIR). Website
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Professor, Rutgers-Newark, Associate Director, Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Associate Director, Rutgers Brain Imaging Center.
Professor, RBHS-NJMS- Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Brandon Alderman, PhD
Associate Professor and Vice Chair, SAS-Department of Kinesiology and Health.
Cheryl Dreyfus, PhD
Professor, Chair, RBHS-RWJMS- Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology.
Adjunct Professor, RBHS-NJMS- Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics.
James Tepper, PhD
Distinguished Professor, Rutgers-Newark- Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience. Website.
Professor, RBHS-NJMS- Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience.
Kevin D. Beck, PhD
Associate Chief of Staff/R&D - VA New Jersey Health Care System, Associate Professor, RBHS-NJMS-Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience.
Sarah McMahon, PhD
Associate Professor Associate Director, Center on Violence Against Women and Children, School of Social Work.
Steven W. Levison, PhD
Professor, RBHS-NJMS- Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience
Teresa Wood, PhD
Professor, Rena Warshow Endowed Chair in Multiple Sclerosis, RBHS-NJMS- Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience.
Vanessa Routh, PhD
Professor, RBHS-NJMS, Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience.
Zhiping Pang, PhD
Associate Professor, RBHS-RWJMS, Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology.