About
I am an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Bowdoin College, where I teach courses in both programs and lead a research lab focused on understanding how early life experiences shape the developing brain and contribute to risk for psychiatric disorders characterized by affective dysfunction. Broadly, my research examines how early life adversity alters corticolimbic circuitry, inhibitory neuron function, and epigenetic regulation in ways that influence later behavioral vigilance to potential threat. I am especially interested in how these effects differ across sex and development. My lab uses translational rat models to experimentally connect early life experiences with neural development, molecular and cellular changes, and later-life behavior.
Currently, my research has focused on leveraging rat ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) as an ethologically relevant assay of anxiety-related hypervigilance. Rats produce these vocalizations in response to threatening or aversive situations, and playback of USVs allows us to examine how animals detect, evaluate, and respond to socially communicated distal threat. My team of undergraduates and I combine this approach with behavioral testing, immunohistochemistry, neural tracing, task-based fMRI, chemogenetics, and molecular and genomic assays to investigate the neural mechanisms that regulate vigilance, risk assessment, and anxiety-like behavior. This work has been supported by a NARSAD Young Investigator Grant from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, as well as through the Maine IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE).
My research program builds from two major areas of my earlier work. During my graduate training with Dr. James Chrobak at the University of Connecticut, I studied parvalbumin, a calcium-binding protein expressed in a subpopulation of inhibitory neurons that play an important role in regulating excitatory/inhibitory balance, which is often disrupted in affective disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression, PTSD). My dissertation examined how parvalbumin expression changes across age, as well as how it interacts with chronic ketamine administration in a rat model of schizophreniform cognitive impairment. This early work established my broader interest in inhibitory neuron function and excitatory/inhibitory balance in psychiatric disorders.
During my postdoctoral training with Dr. Heather Brenhouse at Northeastern University, I investigated how early life adversity alters the sex-dependent development of corticolimbic circuity. Using a rat model of caregiver deprivation (via maternal separation), I examined acute and long-term neural and behavioral outcomes of adversity and characterized the development of amygdala-prefrontal cortex circuits in emotion, stress, and behavioral regulation.
My lab now brings these areas together by examining how early life adversity impacts inhibitory neuron function, corticolimbic development, and threat-related assessment and behavior. We are also investigating whether adversity-induced changes in DNA methylation contribute to later affective outcomes, including altered threat vigilance during aversive USV playback. This work aims to identify molecular and epigenetic mechanisms associated with vulnerability and/or resilience following adversity. A related line of research examines whether therapeutic ketamine treatment can reverse adversity-induced anxiety-like behavior and neural outcomes, as well as the sex-specific mechanisms through which these effects occur.
In addition to my research, I am a passionate educator and mentor. At Bowdoin, I teach courses in Psychology and Neuroscience and work closely with undergraduate students in the classroom and laboratory. Prior to Bowdoin, I taught courses at the University of Connecticut, MCPHS University, and Northeastern University including Introduction to Psychology, Biological Psychology, Learning & Motivation, and Clinical Neuroscience. I am especially interested in developing and teaching courses that connect Neuroscience with other disciplines, including Art, Sex and Gender studies, and Ethics.
As a first-generation college student and queer scientist, I am committed to supporting students from backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in Psychology, Neuroscience, and the sciences more broadly. I aim to create an inclusive laboratory and classroom environment where students can develop confidence, independence, and a sense of belonging in science. On any given day, you can find me in the classroom, in the lab, or enjoying all the Maine has to offer with my wife and two kids.