Research
Faculty Biographical Information
David G. Amaral, Ph.D., (Program Co-Director) Beneto Foundation Chair, Professor and Director of Research, M.I.N.D. Institute; Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Center for Neuroscience, School of Medicine; Core Investigator, California National Primate Center.
Dr. Amaral is a neuroscientist who has had continuous NIH funding of his research program for more than 25 years. He has been the recipient of two MERIT awards from the NIMH. His expertise is in neuroanatomy and in systems neuroscience. He has contributed to the literature on the organization of memory systems in the brain and more recently has led a multidisciplinary effort to understand the structure and function of brain systems that subserve social behavior. Much of this work has been carried out using the nonhuman primate model. Dr. Amaral has trained more than thirty pre-doctoral and postdoctoral students in his laboratory and many hold faculty positions in US institutions such as Brown University, New York University, the University of Arizona and foreign institutions, such as the University of Kuopio in Finland, the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Neuroscience in Japan and the University of Salamanca in Spain. He currently trains three pre-doctoral students and six postdoctoral students. Dr. Amaral was previously the Director of a pre-doctoral and postdoctoral Neural Systems Training Program carried out in association with the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Amaral is the Beneto Foundation Chair and Research Director of the M.I.N.D. Institute and one of a small group of family members, scientists and clinicians that designed and implemented the development of the M.I.N.D. Institute. He is responsible for coordinating both extramural and intramural research programs at the M.I.N.D. Institute. He is also Co-Director of the Center for Phenomic and Genomic Analyses of Autism, a collaboration with the University of Southern California and AGRE. In addition to his research in basic neuroscience and animal models of autism, Dr. Amaral and his students are also conducting structural magnetic resonance imaging studies and postmortem histological studies of the autistic brain with particular emphasis on regions, such as the amygdala and hippocampus, located in the medial temporal lobe. Dr. Amaral holds positions in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the Center for Neuroscience and the California National Primate Research Center and the M.I.N.D. Institute. He has previously been the Chair of the Neuroscience Graduate Program and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry. In the twelve years that he has been at the University of California, Davis, Dr. Amaral has developed collaborative and interdisciplinary research with colleagues in many departments. He has also developed relationships with several campus units that will allow the trainees in this program to have access to all of the rich and varied biomedical research resources at the university. On a national and international level, Dr. Amaral is the past Editor-in-Chief of Neuroscience, the journal of the International Brain Research Organization, is on the editoral boards of six journals including Autism Research and has been an active participant in several committees for the Society for Neuroscience. He was founding Program Chair of the International Meeting for Autism Research (IMFAR).
For additional information, contact Dr. Amaral at dgamaral@ucdavis.edu or (916) 703-0237.
Thomas F. Anders, M.D., Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine
Dr. Anders is a child and adolescent psychiatrist. At UC Davis, he served for six years as Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (1992-1998), followed by 4 years as Executive Associate Dean of the School of Medicine (1998-2002). Currently, he is a full time faculty member of the M.I.N.D. Institute. Previous to coming to UC Davis, he has headed Divisions of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Stanford University and Brown University. He has been the PI on a number of NIH grants, including a Career Development Award (K-01). During his many years of administration, Dr. Anders not only built research programs and mentored many research fellows (residents and post-doctoral psychologists), but he has maintained an active program of research himself, focused on the ontogeny of sleep-wake states and sleep disorders in infants and children. Dr. Anders is currently funded by the NIMH to investigate sleep disorders in children with autism compared to developmentally delayed children without autism and typically developing children and assesses the effects of sleep loss on their daytime behavior and learning. He has served as PI on two NIMH training grants in child psychiatry.
For additional information, contact Dr. Anders at tfanders@ucdavis.edu or (916) 703-0230.
Robert F. Berman, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery, School of Medicine; Director of Research, Neurotrauma Research Laboratory, UC Davis
Dr. Berman is a professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery and a member of the Center for Neuroscience. He is also affiliated with the M.I.N.D. Institute and is a member of the Center for Children’s Environmental Health. On a national level Dr. Berman served as Chair of the National Research Council (NRC) Life Sciences Research Fellowship Panel from 1998-2004, and was also a member of the Policy and Global Affairs Committee of the National Academies. These committees administer the prestigious pre and postdoctoral NRC research programs, and advise the National Academies on Research Training and Manpower issues in the United States. He serves on the National Science Foundation graduate fellowship review panel in neuroscience and physiology. He is also Director of Research for the Neurotrauma Research Laboratories at UC Davis, and is a Principal Investigator in the UC Davis Neurotherapeutic Research Institute (NTRI). Dr. Berman has trained over 30 pre-doctoral and postdoctoral students over the past 25 years, and currently has one postdoctoral fellow and one graduate student working in his laboratory. He has chaired the Neuroscience Graduate Program since 2006, is a member of the Pharmacology/Toxicology Graduate Group at UC Davis, and is a core faculty member on the Autism Research Training Program Grant (NIH) and the Graduate Training Program in Basic Neuroscience (NIH). Dr. Berman’s research examines brain development and behavior in animal models of neurodevelopmental disorders, including mouse models of Fragile X-associated Tremor/Ataxis (FXTAS) and Rett Syndrome. His laboratory also has a focus on the effects of neonatal exposure to environmental toxins (PBDE’s, PCB’s) on neurodevelopment using animal models. Dr. Berman’s research and training activities are currently funded by the NIEHS, NINDS, NIMH and the EPA.
For additional information, contact Dr. Berman at rfberman@ucdavis.edu or (530) 754-5102.
Simeon Boyadjiev Boyd, M.D., Children’s Miracle Network Endowed Chair, Associate Professor and Chief of the Section of Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine
Dr. Boyd is a medical geneticist and pediatrician, who joined UC Davis and the M.I.N.D. Institute in June 2006, accepting a position in the Department of Pediatrics as Children’s Miracle Network Endowed Chair and Chief of the Section of Genetics. His prior achievements include identification of the gene responsible for Oculo-Dento-Digtal dysplasia; establishing a multi-institutional project focused on the analysis of craniosynostosis and bladder exstrophy; and the delineation of several novel dysmorphic syndromes. His laboratory is currently involved in studies of non-Mendelian (multifactorial) birth defects, using approaches that can be applied to the genetic analysis of other complex traits, i.e. autism, developmental delays, and learning disabilities. Dr. Boyd’s laboratory is also involved in identification and characterization of genetic syndromes due to defects of the intracellular secretory pathway, and has recently identified and characterized one such syndrome, Cranio-Lenticulo-Sutural dysplasia. Dr. Boyd has trained many medical students and residents, and currently has two graduate students working in his laboratory. In addition to his research activities, Dr. Boyd directs the clinical activities of the Section of Genetics that provides campus-wide clinical services.
For additional information, contact Dr. Boyd at simeon.boyd@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu or (916) 703-0446.
Cameron S. Carter, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine; Director, UC Davis Imaging Research Center, UCDHS
Dr. Carter is a senior neuroscientist who is both a cognitive neuroscientist, as well as a clinical and translational investigator. His research focuses on the contributions of the frontal cortex to human higher cognitive functions and on the mechanisms that underlie disturbances in the circuits in neurodevolopmental disorders such as schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder and autism spectrum disorders. Dr. Carter has trained over 30 pre-doctoral and postdoctoral students, and is currently mentoring two postdoctoral fellows and several junior faculty members. Dr. Carter is currently Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology and Director of the Imaging Research Center. By focusing the expertise and resources of this state-of-the-art, MRI-based Imaging Research Center on imaging and clinical neuroscience and emphasizing multimodal imaging approaches, his goal is to further increase our understanding of the pathophysiology of impaired cognition in mental disorders and the training of a new generation of translational cognitive and affective neuroscientists.
For additional information, contact Dr. Carter at cameron.carter@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu or (916) 734-7783.
Blythe A. Corbett, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine
Dr. Corbett is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and has been working with and studying children with autism spectrum disorders since 1991. Since coming to UC Davis, Dr. Corbett has consistently received research awards and grants from several funding agencies and foundations, including Debber Family Foundation (2003/2006), a M.I.N.D. Institute Investigator-Initiated Award (2004), the Tupin Award (2005), Perry Family Foundation (2005), National Institute of Health (2005), and Children’s Miracle Network (2006). Dr. Corbett's research program utilizes several methods of analysis to characterize the behavioral and biological profiles of children with autism, including sophisticated behavioral observation, analysis of social and stress hormones, and functional MRI. Additionally, Dr. Corbett is extending these approaches to investigate the biological and neuropsychological profiles of Tourette syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Dr. Corbett is committed to designing a program of translational research that will lead to enhanced assessment and treatment of the socioemotional capabilities of children with autism. In her short career, Dr. Corbett has trained two postdoctoral fellows, and three graduate students are currently working with her.
For additional information, contact Dr. Corbett at blythe.corbett@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu or (916) 703-0232.
Jeffrey P. Gregg, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine
Dr. Gregg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and director of the Molecular Pathology Core. He has extensive experience with microarray technology. During his post-doctoral fellowship at UCLA with Dr. Stanley Nelson, he was instrumental in the development and implementation of the first arrayer and scanner at UCLA as well as several technologies adapted to microarrays. His research deals with using molecular approaches to determine phenotypic variation in disease. Dr. Gregg’s background is primarily in cancer research but has become increasingly involved in studies of autism. He is the Director of the Gene Expression Shared Resource in the UC Davis Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) in which his program has performed hundreds of microarray experiments. In 2000, the M.I.N.D. Institute recruited Dr. Gregg to be the Director of the Pediatric Genomics Laboratory. Dr. Gregg has trained more than 10 pre-doctoral and postdoctoral students.
For additional information, contact Dr. Gregg at jpgregg@ucdavis.edu or (916) 703-0362.
hagermanRandi J. Hagerman, M.D., Endowed Chair in Fragile X Research and Medical Director, M.I.N.D. Institute; Professor, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine
Dr. Hagerman, a developmental behavioral pediatrician, holds the fragile X Chair in Pediatrics and serves as the Medical Director of the M.I.N.D. Institute. She and her husband, Paul Hagerman M.D., Ph.D., a molecular biologist, have established a productive molecular-clinical team of researchers focused on fragile X and autism. Approximately 30% of children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) have autism and approximately 3% of children with autism have fragile X. In 2000, Dr. Hagerman initiated The Fragile X Treatment and Research Program at the M.I.N.D. Institute, which grew into an NIH-funded Fragile X Center of Excellence in collaboration with the Seattle MRDDRC in 2003. Dr. Hagerman has worked in the fragile X field since 1980. Her early work focused on describing the physical and behavioral features of the syndrome and, together with parents of affected children, founded the National Fragile X Foundation in Denver in 1984. Since discovery of the FMR1 gene, Dr. Hagerman has studied molecular-clinical correlations and described high functioning males with FXS who present with learning disabilities without mental retardation. Dr. Hagerman has a long history of training graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, as well as physicians from around the world. She is currently mentoring four graduate students and three postdoctoral fellows.
For additional information, contact Dr. Hagerman at randi.hagerman@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu or (916) 703-0247.
hendrenRobert L. Hendren, D.O., Executive Director, M.I.N.D. Institute; Professor and Chief, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine
Dr. Hendren is a Fellow of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and will serve as its President from 2007-2009. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and is board certified in General, as well as Child and Adolescent, Psychiatry. Dr. Hendren completed his residency in general psychiatry at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine and a two-year fellowship in child psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center in 1981. His primary areas of research and publication are translational clinical pharmacology and nutritional trials using biomarkers (MRI, measures of inflammation, oxidative stress, immune function and pharmacogenomics) in neurodevelopmental disorders such as Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders, and impulse control disorders. He has over 100 publications on topics in his field including 4 books. Dr. Hendren has been listed in “The Best Doctors in America”, each year since it was published in 1998. He takes an active leadership role in various local, state and national organizations and committees and frequently speaks at national and international conferences and symposiums.
For additional information, contact Dr. Hendren at robert.hendren@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu.
hertzpicciottoIrva Hertz-Picciotto, Ph.D., M.P.H., Professor, Division of Epidemiology, Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine
Dr. Hertz-Picciotto is an epidemiologist and professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, Deputy Director of the UC Davis Center for Children's Environmental Health, and Principal Investigator of the Childhood Autism Risks from Genetics and the Environment Study (CHARGE - funded by the NIEHS). She is a recognized expert in the use of epidemiologic data for quantitative risk assessments of environmental chemical exposures. Her past and ongoing research has addressed effects of lead, arsenic, pesticides, PCBs, and air pollution on pregnancy, early childhood respiratory health, and neurodevelopment. In addition she has developed methods to validate risks from complex chemical mixtures, compare animal experiments with human studies, and perform statistical analysis of studies where exposures change over time. Dr. Hertz-Picciotto has chaired the doctoral committees of 17 graduate students in epidemiology, three of whom won prizes for their work from professional organizations, and six of whom hold faculty positions at academic institutions. Dr. Hertz-Picciotto has also served on 34 other doctoral student committees and 13 masters student committees. Dr. Hertz-Picciotto is past President of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, and has chaired numerous Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences Committees, including, in 2002, Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Agent Orange and other Herbicides. She serves on the editorial board of several leading epidemiology journals, on scientific advisory boards for the State of California, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, among others, and has taught courses in Brazil, Uzbekhistan, North Carolina, Michigan, France, Chile, and Berkeley.
For additional information, contact Dr. Hertz-Picciotto at ihp@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-3025.
David Hessl, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine
Dr. Hessl is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He has focused his research on genetic, brain, environmental and neuroendocrine factors affecting cognition and behavior in children and adults with fragile X syndrome. Recently, his work has expanded to focus on premutation carriers of fragile X who as children are at increased risk for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism, and who as older adults are at risk for a neurodegenerative disease involving tremor, ataxia, and dementia. This work is supported by an RO1 from the NIMH. He is also supported by a NIMH Career Development Award (K23) to examine the association between anxiety and autism symptoms in children with fragile X syndrome and the physiology underlying social anxiety problems such as gaze avoidance in these individuals. Dr. Hessl is a licensed psychologist and his clinical interests involve cognitive, emotional, and behavioral evaluation of children, adolescents and adults with neurodevelopmental disorders, especially those with fragile X syndrome, autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, learning disabilities, and Tourette's syndrome. He has been active teaching graduate students and undergraduates in research settings for the past 16 years, and currently supervises one post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory and clinic.
For additional information, contact Dr. Hessl at david.hessl@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu or (916) 703-0249.
Janine M. LaSalle, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology and Rowe Program in Human Genetics, School of Medicine
Dr. LaSalle is Professor of Microbiology and Immunology with a joint appointment in the Rowe Program in Human Genetics. Dr. LaSalle has won international awards for her graduate and postdoctoral research in the fields of Immunology and Human Genetics. The underlying theme of Dr. LaSalle’s basic science research is the understanding of nuclear organization in the epigenetic control of gene expression. Since her appointment at UC Davis in 1997, Dr. LaSalle has had an outstanding record of obtaining extramural funding for her research, with continual NIH funding since 1998. She has served as a reviewer of grants for the NCI, NICHD, and VA MERIT and is an ad hoc reviewer for multiple biomedical journals. From her postdoctoral work on the neurodevelopmental disorders Prader-Willi and Angelman syndromes to her current research focus on the molecular pathogenesis of Rett syndrome, she has a solid track record of using innovative approaches to address complex questions about disease pathogenesis in the human. She has independently developed several new approaches, including the use of T cell cloning for separating X-inactivation and heterogeneous methylation patterns and the use of laser scanning cytometry for quantitating immunofluorescence on neuronal tissue and tissue microarrays. Dr. LaSalle is a member of four graduate groups, including Genetics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Neuroscience, and Biophysics, and serves as the Master Adviser for the Genetics Graduate Group. During the current funding period Dr. LaSalle has mentored one of the most successful of the program’s trainees. She currently mentors six graduate and postdoctoral trainees.
For additional information, contact Dr. LaSalle at jmlasalle@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-7598.
Dr. McAllister is a basic and translational neuroscientist whose research focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of synapse formation in the developing cerebral cortex. Her laboratory studies the formation of individual synapses between dissociated, cultured neurons in real time, by simultaneously imaging the recruitment of pre- and postsynaptic proteins fused to GFP to synaptic sites and recording the development of synaptic transmission at single synapses as they form. For this basic research, Dr. McAllister has been awarded a grant from the National Eye Institute, in addition to a number of fellowships from private foundations including a Scholar Award from the Pew Foundation and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. Dr. McAllister’s research also focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of neurodevelopmental disorders, including schizophrenia and autism. For these projects, she has been awarded a Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar Award from the March of Dimes, a Scholar Award from the John Merck Fund, a Research Grant from the March of Dimes, a Pilot award from Cure Autism Now, and a research grant from Autism Speaks. Dr. McAllister is currently training 2 graduate students and 3 postdoctoral fellows. Two of her former postdoctoral fellows are now tenure-track assistant professors in prominent academic neuroscience programs and two other trainees are currently in influential research positions in industry. Dr. McAllister holds positions in the Department of Neurology, the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior and the Center for Neuroscience. On a national and international level, Dr. McAllister serves as a reviewer for many journals and ad hoc reviewer for several NIH study sections, has been a member of the Program Committee for the Society for Neuroscience, and was awarded the 2006 Young Investigator Award from the Society for Neuroscience.
For additional information, contact Dr. McAllister at kmcallister@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-8114.
Dr. Mundy is a developmental and clinical psychologist who has studied the nature of autism for the past 25 years. He is actively engaged in the study of the neurodevelopment of joint attention in young children with autism and typical development. He is also working on understanding and treating problems in the social and emotional development of higher functioning children and adolescents with autism. Dr. Mundy currently is the Lisa Capps Professor of Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Education at the UC Davis School of Education and the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute. He is also the Director of Educational Research at the M.I.N.D. Institute. Prior to that Dr. Mundy was a Professor of Psychology at the University of Miami where he was the founding Director of the University of Miami Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, which serves over 3000 children and families. He is also the Founding Co-Director of the Marino Autism Research Institute at the University of Miami. Dr. Mundy is currently working on a book entitled, “Joint Attention and Our Sharing Minds: Attention and Social Cognition in Typical Development and Autism” to be published by Guildford Publications in 2008-2009. During his career he has trained over 20 graduate and postdoctoral fellows.
For additional information, contact Dr. Mundy at pcmundy@ucdavis.edu or 916-703- 0310.
Sally J. Ozonoff, Ph.D., Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine
Dr. Ozonoff is a Professor and the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Psychiatry. She has been continuously funded by NIH since 1989 to study autism spectrum disorder. Her current research at the M.I.N.D. Institute focuses on very young children with autism. She is studying the onset of autism in a prospective investigation that follows high-risk infants from birth through age 3. She is also studying risk factors, both biological and behavioral, for autistic regression. Dr. Ozonoff has written over a hundred peer-reviewed publications and chapters on these topics, as well as three books (A Parents’ Guide to Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism, Guilford Press, 2002; Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Research Review for Practitioners, American Psychiatric Press, 2003; Assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorders, Guilford Press, forthcoming Fall 2008). Her work has been showcased on the television news show 60 Minutes, as well as in many local and national newspapers. Dr. Ozonoff serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Autism Research. Dr. Ozonoff’s clinical interests are in the diagnosis and assessment of autism spectrum disorders, with specializations in infant and adult diagnosis and Asperger syndrome. She is trained as a clinical psychologist. Before moving to the M.I.N.D. Institute in 2002, she was on the faculty of the University of Utah in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry. Since 1995 she has trained 11 graduate and postdoctoral students.
For additional information, contact Dr. Ozonoff at sally.ozonoff@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu or (916) 703-0259.
Dr. Pessah is Professor of Toxicology in the Department of Molecular Biosciences, a member of the Center for Neuroscience and the M.I.N.D. Institute, Chair of the Department of Molecular Biosciences, and Director of the NIEHS Center for Children's Environmental Health and Disease Prevention. In his twenty years at the University of California, Davis, Dr. Pessah has developed collaborative and interdisciplinary research programs with many colleagues in the Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the College of Biological Sciences. He is a senior member of the NIEHS Superfund Basic Research Program. Dr Pessah is on the editorial board/editorial advisory boards of multiple journals, including NeuroToxicology and Teratology. To date he has mentored 12 graduate students and 15 postdoctoral fellows. Dr. Pessah's research interests are in the area of molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating Ca2+ signaling in excitable cells. His lab is actively studying how dysfunction of Ca2+ channel complexes contribute to gene x environment interactions and their impact of disease susceptibility, such as FXTAS, Rett syndrome, malignant hyperthermia and cardiac arrhythmogensis.
For additional information, contact Dr. Pessah at inpessah@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-6696.
Susan Rivera, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Psychology and Center for Mind and Brain, College of Letters and Science
Dr. Rivera is a developmental psychologist and neuroscientist, who studies the origins and development of cognitive processing across the lifespan using classic behavioral, as well as neuroimaging (fMRI), techniques. Investigations in Dr. Rivera’s laboratory include the development of dorsal versus ventral visual processing, object representation, numerical cognition and affective processing. A good portion of her NIH-funded research program involves research contrasting typical development with that of children with neurodevelopmental disorders including those with autism and fragile X syndrome. One of her main research goals is to build a framework for integrating the previously disparate methodological and theoretical orientations of cognitive developmental and neuroscience research. By employing a variety of converging research techniques, she strives to elucidate the complex brain-behavior relationships that underlie cognitive development. Dr. Rivera has trained six pre-doctoral and postdoctoral students in her laboratory, providing them training in cutting-edge neuroscience techniques along with a strong foundation in basic developmental science. Dr. Rivera holds positions in the Department of Psychology, the Center for Mind and Brain, and the M.I.N.D. Institute.
For additional information, contact Dr. Rivera at srivera@ucdavis.edu or 530-747-3802.
Dr. Rocke, a mathematician and biostatistician, is a professor in the Departments of Applied Science, College of Engineering, and Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine, at the University of California-Davis. He is also co-director of the UC Davis Center for Image Processing and Integrated Computing. Dr. Rocke’s research interests include statistical analysis of gene expression data, statistical analysis of high-throughput biological assay data, analysis of massive data sets, robust statistical methods, chemometrics, formal models in international relations, applications of statistics in medicine and epidemiology, biology, environmental science, and earth sciences; and quality and productivity improvement. He is a member and co-investigator of the Center for Children’s Environmental Health, and has productive collaborations with colleagues in multiple schools and colleges at UC Davis and nationwide.
For additional information, contact Dr. Rocke at dmrocke@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-0510.
Sally J. Rogers, Ph.D., (Program Director) Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine
Dr. Rogers is a developmental psychologist known for both her studies concerning the nature of early developmental and neuropsychological processes in autism, and also for her work in treatment of autism. She has directed both clinical and research programs for autism, and training programs for clinical and research students and postdoctoral fellows, for the past twenty years. She is currently the principal investigator of one of the ten NIMH/NICHD Autism Center of Excellence projects – a multisite randomized controlled trial of intensive intervention for toddlers with autism. She is also principal investigator of another multisite randomized clinical trial involving parent delivered intervention for infants and toddlers with autism, and a co–PI with Sally Ozonoff of a large multisite study of infant siblings of children with autism. Dr. Rogers has been involved in postdoctoral training for the past twenty years, formerly at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, where she was one of the training faculty of the NIH funded Developmental Psychobiology Research Training Program (PI: Martin Reite). Her previous trainees hold faculty positions in a variety of universities. In Denver, she also mentored a number of pre-doctoral psychology graduate students from the University of Denver with Dr. Bruce Pennington. Previous research trainees are now on the faculties of universities in several nations, conducting autism related research. She also trained a large number of clinical students, including both clinical psychology interns and clinical postdoctoral fellows, at the John F. Kennedy Center for Developmental Disabilities, where she headed the Clinical Psychology program, and the Autism Evaluation and Treatment Clinic, for many years, as Professor of Psychiatry and a licensed psychologist. For the past four years, she has been the PD/PI, along with David Amaral, of this interdisciplinary autism research postdoctoral training program at the M.I.N.D. institute. In her position as Professor of Psychiatry and Senior Scientist at the M.I.N.D. Institute, her current research has several foci. She and her colleague, Sally Ozonoff, Ph.D., are exploring the very early social-communicative and sensory motor repertoire of infant siblings of children with autism, from the first month of birth, looking for early precursors of the autism phenotype. Dr. Rogers’ research is also focusing on two particularly deficient processes in early autism: imitation and nonverbal communication of emotions. She continues work in treatment, currently conducting randomly controlled trials of interventions for toddlers with autism.
For additional information, contact Dr. Rogers at sally.rogers@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu or (916) 703-0264.
Philip A. Schwartzkroin, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Neurological Surgery and Center for Neuroscience, School of Medicine
Dr. Schwartzkroin is a neuroscientist and professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery. His research interests deal with cellular mechanisms of seizures and epilepsy. He is an established leader in his research field with two NIH Javits Awards and an American Epilepsy Society Research Award. He has also played a prominent role in the national/international epilepsy community (past president of the American Epilepsy Society, past chair of the International League Against Epilepsy’s Commission on Neurobiology). He has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles, numerous book chapters, and has edited several books on epilepsy. Although a basic scientist, Dr. Schwartzkroin has throughout his career been associated with clinical departments, and has established important interactions with both basic science and clinical colleagues. At the University of Washington (where Dr. Schwartzkroin spent over 20 years on the faculties of the Departments of Neurological Surgery and Physiology/Biophysics), he trained over 20 students in his laboratory, both predoctoral and postdoctoral. Dr. Schwartzkroin has a solid history in research training. He was associated with training grants in both basic science and clinical departments, and served on the program committee for the Ph.D. Program in Neurobiology and Behavior. He also served as interim Program Director for the Department of Neurological Surgery’s training grant (1982-85).
For additional information, contact Dr. Schwartzkroin at paschwartzkroin@ucdavis.edu or (530) 754-5029.
Dr. Schweitzer is a child psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, with a lengthy history of research and clinical training in the field of autism and developmental disorders. She has a background in applying both discrete trial and incidental teaching techniques in programs for autism. Over the past decade, Dr. Schweitzer has also been studying the neural correlates of attention, working memory and reward-related processes in clinical populations to better understand the neural basis of optimal learning conditions. She has mentored junior faculty and 10 pre- and postgraduate researchers. Much of her research in functional neuroimaging has been focused on children and adults with attention-deficit / hyperactivity (ADHD). However, she also has funded projects to explore attention and learning processes in children prenatally-exposed to substances of abuse and adults with schizophrenia. She has been funded on an ongoing basis for her research in ADHD and other disorders by NIMH, NIDA, the Stanley Foundation and local university sources. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and regularly reviews applications for federal and international grant competitions. Dr. Schweitzer is currently the Director of the ADHD Program at the M.I.N.D. Institute.
For additional information, contact Dr. Schweitzer at julie.schweitzer@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu or 916-703-0450.
Frank R. Sharp, M.D., Professor, Department of Neurology, School of Medicine
Dr. Sharp is professor in the Department of Neurology and a faculty member of the M.I.N.D. Institute. He has been continuously funded by the NIH for over 30 years. He has served as the mentor for over 60 students, post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty members. Those trainees are on the faculty at UCSD, UCSF, University of Cincinnati, Harvard, Stanford, University of Massachusetts, University of North Carolina, University of Pittsburgh, Washington University in St Louis, Lund University, University of Tokyo and many others. He has received teaching awards from medical students, neurology residents, and the academic senates at UCSD, UCSF and the University of Cincinnati. Scientifically he has made contributions in a number of areas. He was among the group that first described the use of 2-deoxyglucose to map active regions of the rodent brain, which led the way for subsequent PET and fMRI methods. He derived the idea and was the among the group that first described the use of the immediate early gene c-fos to map active neurons in the brain. Dr. Sharp is currently on the editorial boards of four scientific journals. He has been a standing member of the AHA Brain grant review committee, and is a permanent member of the NINDS NSDA review committee.
For additional information, contact Dr. Sharp at frank.sharp@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu or (916) 703-0368.
Dr. Simon is a pediatric cognitive neuroscientist who joined the M.I.N.D. Institute from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in 2005. He holds the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. His research focuses on the neural basis of cognitive impairments seen in genetic disorders that produce cognitive impairment, developmental disability and psychiatric disorders. Building on his theory of the foundations of numerical competence, Dr. Simon investigates how dysfunction in specific neurocognitive processing systems, such as spatial and temporal attention cognition, can generate a range of cognitive and behavioral impairments. He is developing remedial intervention programs that will minimize such disability. Dr. Simon's current projects, which are funded by the National Institutes of Health, center on studies of spatiotemporal and numerical cognition and psychopathology in children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, also known as DiGeorge and VeloCardioFacial syndrome. He is also engaged in similar studies of children with fragile X or with Turner syndromes and leads one component of the NeuroTherapeutics Research Institute project that is focused in adults (and children) with the fragile X spectrum disorders. Besides cognitive processing analyses and psychometric testing, Dr. Simon uses cutting edge neuroimaging methods, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Voxel Based Morphometrics, and Diffusion Tensor imaging in order to study the structure, function and connective patterns in the developing brain. Dr. Simon is currently Associate Editor of the American Journal on Mental Retardation. During his career he has mentored 10 graduate and postdoctoral trainees.
For additional information, contact Dr. Simon at tony.simon@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu or (916) 703-0407.
Marjorie Solomon, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine
Dr. Solomon is a licensed psychologist whose primary clinical work is focused on high functioning children with autism spectrum disorders. Her principal research program investigates higher cognition in individuals with autism spectrum disorders, and the relationship between cognitive control, cerebellar and basal ganglia pathology, and behavioral symptoms including restricted and repetitive behaviors and formal thought disorder. A Career Development Award from NIMH has enabled her to study cognitive neuroscience methods including fMRI to better investigate the neural mechanisms underlying control deficits and their relationship to symptoms. As part of the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health program of the NIH, Dr. Solomon has begun to explore gender differences in autism symptom expression, personality, psychopathology and cognitive control and their relationship to oxytocin and vasopressin. She is also funded on a grant from Autism Speaks to examine non-social aspects of reward processing in adults with ASDs using behavioral measures and functional neuroimaging. In addition to these research programs, Dr. Solomon works clinically doing social skills training with high functioning children on the autism spectrum, and has authored several intervention studies. Dr. Solomon has been involved with training group facilitators for eight years.
For additional information, contact Dr. Solomon at marjorie.solomon@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu or 916-703-0270.
Alice F. Tarantal, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, and California National Primate Research Center
Dr. Tarantal is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Tarantal's NIH-funded research program primarily focuses on fetal diseases and corrective therapies, with a focus on stem cell and gene-based therapies. The activities in Dr. Tarantal's laboratory cover the following areas of translational research: gene therapy, stem cells/cell-based therapies, fetal models of human congenital and acquired diseases, maternal:fetal microchimerism, and imaging applications. Dr. Tarantal is the P.I. and Director of the NHLBI-supported Center for Fetal Monkey Gene Transfer for Heart, Lung, and Blood Diseases (www.CFMGT.ucdavis.edu). She has a strong commitment to teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, fellows, and junior and senior scientists. Dr. Tarantal also has an Annual Gene Therapy Symposium for Heart, Lung, and Blood Diseases (www.GTS.ucdavis.edu), that provides an outstanding training opportunity for students and fellows interested in learning more about gene therapy and related applications.
For additional information, contact Dr. Tarantal at aftarantal@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-0447.
Dr. Van de Water is an immunologist with expertise in immunopathology and autoimmune diseases, who has had continuous NIH funding of her research program for 16 years. Dr. Van de Water is a Professor in Residence in the School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, and an advisor for the Graduate Group in Immunology. She has been the co-recipient of a MERIT award from the NIAID for her work in the pathogenesis of primary biliary cirrhosis with Dr. M. Eric Gershwin. Dr. Van de Water has trained 13 predoctoral and postdoctoral students in her laboratory, many of whom hold faculty positions in US institutions, such as Scripps Research Institute and Rochester Institute of Technology, as well as foreign institutions, such as the Kings College in London, England. She is currently the principal investigator for the Cellular and Molecular Core of the Center for Children's Environmental Health that conducts detailed analysis of the immune system, as well as evaluations of the interaction between the immune system and neuronal cells. Other research studies include: an NIMH-funded project on maternal biomarkers of autism, a project to evaluate the molecular mechanisms of adverse reactions to foods in children with autism, and studies of the pathogenesis and etiology of primary biliary cirrhosis, an autoimmune liver disease. One of her current students is the recipient of the Autism Speaks pre-doctoral mentor award for his work in autism.
For additional information, contact Dr. Van de Water at javandewater@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-2154.