Chair

Brief Bio

James A. Bibb, PhD
James A. Bibb, PhD

Professor and Chair

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix
Areas of Interest: Exploring the molecular mechanisms of intracellular signal transduction in both health and disease 
Contact: @email

Faculty

Brief Bio

Andrei Alexandrov, MD

Andrei Alexandrov, MD

Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix
Areas of Interest: Advanced cerebral vascular ultrasound testing, including transcranial doppler, emboli detection, vaso-motor reactivity testing, bubble test for right to left shunts, as well as assessment of collateral and carotid plaque typing to individualize stroke treatment and prevention strategies
Contact: @email

Carol Barnes, PhD

Carol Barnes, PhD

Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Science
Areas of Interest: Behavioral and systems neuroscience, aging, memory, hippocampus
Contact: @email

Robert Wagner Bina, MD

Robert Wagner Bina, MD

Assistant Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix
Areas of Interest: General neurosurgery, epilepsy surgery, functional neurosurgery, ethics, neurotrauma, neuropsychiatric surgery
Contact: @email

Roberta Diaz Brinton, PhD

Roberta Diaz Brinton, PhD

Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson
Areas of Interest: Mechanisms underlying the risk of Alzheimer’s during female brain aging, sex differences in mechanisms underlying Alzheimer’s, regeneration and repair mechanisms to regenerate the Alzheimer’s brain
Contact: @email
Lab website

Haijiang Cai, Ph.D

Haijiang Cai, PhD

Associate Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson
Areas of Interest: Neural circuits of animal behaviors, with a focus on understanding how the neural circuits regulate feeding and emotional behaviors, using optogenetics, pharmacogenetics, electrophysiology, molecular, and behavior analysis tools
Contact: @email
Lab website

Ayanabha Chakraborti, PhD

Ayanabha Chakraborti, PhD

Assistant Research Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix
Areas of Interest: Gut-brain axis and mood disorders, sex differences in stress-related disorders, metabolic syndrome and neuropsychiatric comorbidities
Contact: @email

Theresa Currier Thomas, PhD

Theresa Currier Thomas, PhD

Associate Research Professor

Affiliation: Phoenix Children’s
Areas of Interest: Traumatic brain injury, translational neurotrauma, sex differences, neuroendocrinology, neurochemistry, histology
Contact: @email

Deveroux Ferguson, PhD

Deveroux Ferguson, PhD

Associate Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix
Areas of Interest: Transcriptomics, neurodegenerative diseases, gene-environment interactions and epigenetics, developmental, cell and molecular biology, depression
Contact: @email
Lab website

Aaron W. McGee, PhD

Aaron W. McGee, PhD

Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix
Areas of Interest: Visual cortex plasticity, in vivo imaging of neuronal structure and activity, mouse models of developmental visual disorders
Contact: @email

Rayna Gonzales, PhD

Rayna Gonzales, PhD

Associate Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix
Areas of Interest: Vascular inflammation, vascular biology, stroke, psychiatric disease, neurodegenerative diseases, cerebrovascular disorders, cell signaling, cardiovascular diseases, cardiovascular biology
Contact: @email

Amelia Gallitano, MD

Amelia Gallitano, MD, PhD

Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix
Areas of Interest: Her research investigates the hypothesis that immediate early genes mediate the interaction of environmental stress and genetic predisposition, to influence the development of psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia and mood disorders
Contact: @email
Lab website

Ronald Hammer, PhD

Ronald Hammer, PhD

Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix
Areas of Interest: Schizophrenia, drug abuse, and dependence, chronic stress
Contact: @email

Matt Huentelman, PhD

Matt Huentelman, PhD

Associate Research Professor

Affiliation: Translational Genomics Research Institute
Areas of Interest: Neuroscience, genomics, biomarkers
Contact: @email

Jeffrey Kordower, PhD

Jeffrey Kordower, PhD

Research Professor

Affiliation: Arizona State University
Areas of Interest: The study of gene and stem cell therapies, disease pathogenesis including the morphological and molecular changes during the course of neurodegeneration, learning and memory, and aging
Contact: @email

Jonathan Lifshitz, PhD

Jonathan Lifshitz, PhD

Research Professor

Affiliation: Phoenix VA Health Care System
Areas of Interest: Traumatic brain Injury, neuroinflammation, neuroanatomy
Contact: @email

Peter Nakaji, MD

Peter Nakaji, MD

Professor and Chair

Affiliation: Banner – University Medical Center
Areas of Interest: Application of fluorescence technologies to cerebrovascular surgery, neuro-oncology, and neuropathology
Contact: @email

Patrick Pirrotte, PhD

Patrick Pirrotte, PhD

Assistant Research Professor

Affiliation: Translational Genomics Research Institute
Areas of Interest: Biomarker discovery and validation pipelines, with specific interests in high-throughput profiling of post-translational modifications
Contact: @email

Brad Racette, MD

Brad Racette, MD

Professor

Affiliation: Barrow Neurological Institute
Areas of Interest: Manganese neurotoxicity, environmental risk factors for Parkinson’s disease, and administrative data studies of Parkinson’s disease and other neurologic diseases
Contact: @email

Eric Reiman, MD

Eric Reiman, MD

CEO Banner Research

Affiliation: Banner – University Medical Center
Areas of Interest: Brain imaging, blood-based biomarkers, APOE and genomics research, the unusually early detection, tracking, and study of Alzheimer's disease, the accelerated evaluation of Alzheimer's prevention therapies, and new models of research collaboration and clinical care
Contact: @email

Rita Sattler, PhD

Rita Sattler, PhD

Associate Research Professor

Affiliation: Barrow Neurological Institute
Areas of Interest: Elucidation of disease pathways in neurodegenerative disorders including, but not exclusively, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD)
Contact: @email
Lab website

Ashley Stokes, PhD

Ashley Stokes, PhD

Assistant Research Professor

Affiliation: Barrow Neurological Institute
Areas of Interest: Neurological disorders, magnetic resonance imaging, imaging biomarkers, Alzheimer's disease
Contact: @email
Lab website

Pierre Tariot, MD

Pierre Tariot, MD

Research Professor

Affiliation: Banner – University Medical Center
Areas of Interest: Care and study of people with and at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, with special emphasis on design and implementation of clinical trials for prevention and treatment, development of biomarkers, measurement and treatment of neuropsychiatric features of dementia and demonstration of effective dementia care
Contact: @email

Todd Vanderah, PhD

Todd Vanderah, PhD

Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson
Areas of Interest: Mechanisms of cancer pain, neuronal integration in pain pathways, neurochemical release during conditions of neuropathy, neuronal plasticity, opioid receptor pharmacology, and novel targets for drug discovery
Contact: @email

Ebenezer Yamoah, PhD

Ebenezer Yamoah, PhD

Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix
Areas of Interest: Age-related hearing loss, mechanotransduction in hair cells, Ion channels, and calcium signaling
Contact: @email

Frederic Zenhausern, PhD, MBA

Frederic Zenhausern, PhD, MBA

Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix
Areas of Interest: Encompass multiple scientific themes combining engineering and medicine to develop platform technologies with global impact for improving human life and the delivery systems of more comprehensive and personalized cares
Contact: @email

Konrad E. Zinsmaier, PhD

Konrad E. Zinsmaier, PhD

Professor

Affiliation: University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson
Areas of Interest: Understanding molecular mechanisms that facilitate synaptic function and plasticity, and mechanisms that protect synapses from neurodegeneration
Contact: @email