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Lab Directory

Subhash C. Pandey PhD

  • Joseph A. Flaherty MD, Endowed Professor of Psychiatry
  • Director, Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics
  • Professor of Biochemistry in Psychiatry
  • Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology
  • Director, Neuroscience Alcoholism Research
  • Senior VA Career Research Scientist
  • Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Illinois Chicago
Dr. Subhash Pandey is a nationally and internationally well-known neuroscientist in the alcohol addiction field and has contributed significantly towards a better understanding of the neurobiology of alcoholism. Two striking features of alcohol addiction are the rapid onset of tolerance to the acute effects of alcohol and the development of ethanol withdrawal symptoms after cessation of protracted ethanol consumption.

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Subash C. Pandey

James Auta PhD, PharmD, MBA

  • Associate Professor

Associate Professor at UIC. Dr. Auta has extensive experience on the behavioral, molecular and neuropharmacology of GABAergic, glutamatergic and nicotinic receptors neurotransmission; and more recently, the neuropharmacology and pathology of the cerebellum during acute and chronic alcohol exposure.

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James Auta

Dulal K. Bhaumik PhD

  • Professor of Psychiatry, Biostatistics and Bioengineering
  • Director, Biostatistical Research Center
Dulal is a Professor of Psychiatry, Biostatistics and Bioengineering at the University of Illinois Chicago. He received his BS in Statistics from Calcutta University, his MS in Statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute, and his PhD in the same field from the University of Maryland. Before joining UIC, he served as a Professor of Statistics in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at University of South Alabama.

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Dulal K. Bhaumik

Kevin Michael Boergens PhD

  • Research Assistant Professor
  • Department of Physics
  • The University of Illinois Chicago
Kevin Boergens is a Research Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physics and Biological Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago. Kevin came to UIC from Austin, Texas where he worked in industry at Paradromics Inc. to build high data-rate brain computer interfaces (BCI). His research interests at UIC include using 3D electron microscopy to map brain circuits. His newest efforts focus on developing photoemission electron microscopy as a tool for neuroscience and mapping brain structures involved in alcohol use disorder. Kevin received his doctorate from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

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Kevin Michael Boergens

Mark Brodie PhD

  • Professor
  • Department of Physiology & Biophysics
  • Department of Psychiatry
  • Director: Master of Science in Medical Physiology Program
Dr. Brodie has studied the effects of acute and chronic alcohol on neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) for many years, and his work has helped elucidate how alcohol acts to increase dopamine neurotransmission in the brain. In conjunction with the CARE, Dr. Brodie is interested in examining epigenetic factors in the VTA that are altered by chronic alcohol exposure and produce sustained changes in the physiology of the VTA during withdrawal. The goal of this work is to understand the neurobiological basis of alcohol effects on the reward and reinforcement systems of the brain.

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Mark Brodie

Emma Childs PhD

  • Associate Professor of Psychiatry
  • Department of Psychiatry
  • University of Illinois Chicago
Dr. Emma Childs is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, and Director of The Human Addiction Psychopharmacology laboratory. Dr Childs’ research is dedicated to improving our understanding of addictive disorders. One of her primary areas of interest is studying how powerful associations are formed between abused drugs and cues (i.e., the people, places and paraphernalia) surrounding drug use.

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Emma Childs

Ruixuan Gao PhD

  • Assistant Professor
  • Department of Biological Sciences & Department of Chemistry
  • University of Illinois Chicago
Dr. Ruixuan Gao is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biological Sciences at UIC. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and completed his postdoctoral training at MIT and HHMI Janelia Research Campus.  Dr. Gao’s research explores the interface of chemistry and biology, seeking to understand the molecular basis of biological structures and processes central to life and human health. His research group is currently developing molecular and imaging tools to advance spatial biology. At CARE, Dr. Gao is interested in using these tools to study transcriptomic and epigenetic changes of the brain under alcohol exposure.

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Ruixuan Gao

Elizabeth Glover PhD

  • Assistant Professor
  • Director of the CARE Behavior Core
  • Department of Psychiatry, UIC
Dr. Glover completed her BS in Zoology at Arizona State University in 2001 and subsequently worked as a research assistant studying nonhuman primate behavior at the Southwest National Primate Research Center in San Antonio, TX. She earned her PhD in Neuroscience in 2012 from Wake Forest University School of Medicine where she investigated the effects of chronic alcohol self-administration on the serotonin system in nonhuman primates under the mentorship of Dr. David Friedman.

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Elizabeth Glover

Dennis R. Grayson PhD

  • Professor of Molecular Neuroscience
  • Department of Psychiatry
  • University of Illinois Chicago
Dr. Grayson is interested in epigenetic mechanisms associated with psychiatric disease. We study DNA methylation and other repressive epigenetic marks. In addition, we are currently investigating abnormal patterns of gene expression following chronic alcohol use and withdrawal. The overall goals are to identify new drug targets in each paradigm to establish new therapeutic approaches for treatment. He graduated from Michigan State University with a BS in Biochemistry and obtained the PhD in Biochemistry from Wayne State School of Medicine.

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Dennis R. Grayson

Kumar U. Kotlo DVM, PhD

  • Research Assistant Professor
Kumar Kotlo, DVM; PhD; is Research Assistant Professor  in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois Chicago. Dr. Kotlo received his DVM and Master’s in Veterinary Microbiology degrees from College of Veterinary Sciences, Tirupathi, Andhra Pradesh, India and PhD from Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s NF, Canada.  He has extensive experience in molecular biology and currently engaged in epitranscriptomic mechanism of alcohol addiction within CARE.

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Kumar U. Kotlo

Harish Krishnan MD, PhD

  • Research Assistant Professor
  • Department of Psychiatry
  • University of Illinois Chicago
Harish Krishnan

Mark Maienschein-Cline PhD

  • Director, Research Informatics Core & Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics, CARE
  • University of Illinois Chicago
Dr. Maienschein-Cline is a computational biologist with over 15 years of experience in bioinformatics analysis for a wide range of genomics projects. He has developed standardized pipelines that use state-of-the-art tools for the analysis of next generation sequencing (NGS) data sets, including RNA-seq and ATAC-seq and single-cell applications of these technologies. He also has extensive experience performing statistical and systems biology analyses for NGS and other high-throughput biological data sets, such as the integration of data from multiple platforms for insight into the effects of alcohol on the transcriptome and epigenome, in particular as part of the CARE project.

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Mark Maienschein-Cline

Francesco Matrisciano MD, PhD

  • Research Assistant Professor
Francesco Matrisciano

Katherine McMurray PhD

  • Assistant Professor
  • Department of Psychiatry, UIC
Dr. McMurray’s research interests focus on understanding the neurobiology of comorbid neuropsychiatric disorders, such as alcohol use disorders, panic disorder, and PTSD, with the goal of more effectively treating and diagnosing these disorders. Dr. McMurray received a BA in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She then completed her doctoral work with Dr. Abraham Palmer at the University of Chicago where she investigated the role of the gene Glo1 in models of alcohol use disorders, anxiety, and depression, and evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of targeting GLO1 using small molecule inhibitors. Dr. McMurray then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Renu Sah at the University of Cincinnati where she received a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Fellowship from NIMH to investigate neurocircuitry underlying panic and PTSD vulnerability.

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Katherine McMurray

Graziano Pinna PhD

  • Associate Professor
  • Department of Psychiatry
  • University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine
Graziano Pinna, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UIC. He earned his undergraduate degree and a Laurea of Doctor at University of Cagliari (Italy) and obtained a PhD in Neuroendocrinology at the Free University of Berlin (Berlin, Germany) before being appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, UIC. Dr. Pinna focuses his research on PTSD, alcohol use disorder (AUD), and their comorbidities using a translational approach. His work spans metabolomics and molecular biology studies of the neurosteroid and endocannabinoid systems in animal models of stress-induced PTSD and depression, and of chronic intermittent alcohol exposure and withdrawal. Bridging preclinical with clinical studies, his studies on neurobiological mechanisms underlying PTSD and AUD aim to suggest novel therapeutic targets, through a biomarker-driven precision medicine approach.

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Graziano Pinna

Rajiv P. Sharma MD

  • Research Professor of Psychiatry, Anatomy and Cell Biology, and Neuroscience
  • Director of the Psychosis Program
Dr. Rajiv P. Sharma is a Research Professor of Psychiatry. Over the past 30 years, he has examined multiple aspects of the schizophrenia illness, including clinical presentations, biochemical studies (hormones, immune molecules, monoamine metabolites, neuropeptides), as well as molecular studies in living subjects, postmortem brain samples, and cell studies. His research is funded by NIH. He is currently focusing on the dissection of epigenetic gene regulation in schizophrenia, pertaining to immune function, cognition, treatment response.

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Rajiv Sharma

Huaibo Zhang MD, PhD

  • Research Assistant Professor
  • Department of Psychiatry
  • University of Illinois Chicago
Dr. Huaibo Zhang has been working in the field of epigenetics of the alcoholism using different animal models. He is actively involved in investigating different epigenetic mechanisms (e.g. histone acetylation/deacetylation, DNA methylation/demethylation) and synaptic plasticity in the development of alcohol dependence and alcoholism, which are operative in the impact of adolescent drinking on alcohol abuse at adolescent hood as well as adulthood.

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Huaibo Zhang

Mark Maienschein-Cline PhD

  • Director, Research Informatics Core & Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics, CARE
  • University of Illinois Chicago
Dr. Maienschein-Cline is a computational biologist with over 15 years of experience in bioinformatics analysis for a wide range of genomics projects. He has developed standardized pipelines that use state-of-the-art tools for the analysis of next generation sequencing (NGS) data sets, including RNA-seq and ATAC-seq and single-cell applications of these technologies. He also has extensive experience performing statistical and systems biology analyses for NGS and other high-throughput biological data sets, such as the integration of data from multiple platforms for insight into the effects of alcohol on the transcriptome and epigenome, in particular as part of the CARE project.

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Mark Maienschein-Cline

Christopher J. Fields PhD

  • Associate Director for HPCBio
  • Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Christopher J. Fields

Alvaro Hernandez PhD

  • Director, High-Throughput Sequencing and Genotyping Unit
  • Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Alvaro Hernandez

Jenny Drnevich Zadeh PhD

  • Functional Genomics Bioinformatics Specialist
  • Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Jenny Drnevich Zadeh