People

I am a board certified psychiatrist and neuropsychiatrist with research work that has been translational in nature and focused on elucidating the underlying pathology of brain conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, substance abuse and neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g., Parkinson's disease) with an aim to find effective clinical treatments guided by molecular neuroimaging. Studies have included using in vivo PET imaging to investigate the role of neuroreceptors such as dopamine D3, serotonin 1B and 6, MGlur5 and kappa opioid systems, neuroinflammation, and most recently, synaptic density (SV2A) in clinical and nonclinical populations. Ongoing interests include imaging neuropsychiatric and addictive disorders and the demographic, social and environmental factors influencing our brain.

Experiencing the impact of the cocaine epidemic in my native Colombia led me to pursue a career dedicated to the improved understanding and treatment of cocaine addiction. Since completing Clinical Training and becoming U.S Board Certified in Adult Psychiatry and Addictions Psychiatry in 2012, I have developed academic interest in the regulation of cocaine self-administration in humans, the validation of Remote Wireless Sensor Network (RWSN) technology for detecting cocaine use, and the role of cocaine-induced deficits in sleep in the putative therapeutic effects of the atypical stimulant, modafinil. Currently; my main career interests lie in the development of neurobiologically informed medication treatments for cocaine dependence, such as the ones based on homeostatic changes on the glutamatergic pathways. As Inpatient Chief of the Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit (CNRU) of the Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC), I provide care for the patients who are admitted on our floor in order to participate in research studies or in order to receive treatment for the psychiatric conditions afflicting them. This setting fosters collaboration with other clinicians, researchers, as well as teaching of Medical Students and Psychiatry Residents

Dr. Faranak Ebrahimian, a physician from Iran, has a clinical background as a general practitioner, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a research interest in Neurology and Radiology; she is currently a postdoctoral associate in the NeuroPET Imaging Program. Her current research interests revolve around the application of PET and MRI for diagnosing and understanding the pathophysiology of brain disorders, including Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and autism.

Dr. Fesharaki is currently a neuropsychiatrist, as well as a basic neuroscience researcher focusing on Traumatic Brain Injury and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. He has a diverse training background, which include a mixture of clinical adult psychiatry, clinical behavioral neurology/neuropsychiatry and bench neuroscience skills.  This combination of aforementioned skills has in turn given him a unique vantage point to have the opportunity to apply what he continues to learn in the laboratory to enrich his clinical treatment.  His current research focus is to develop a robust animal model of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), as well as investigation of potential treatment modalities.  He is also involved in a collaborative research study investigating synaptic density alterations in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).

Kathleen Garrison, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. She earned a BS in Neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles, an MSc in Neuroscience from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Southern California. Katie completed her Postdoctoral Training in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale. Katie's research program aims to develop innovative treatments for addictions by understanding the underlying neurobiological processes, designing novel interventions and testing these in randomized clinical trials. Her work is largely focused on tobacco use, but extends to other addictive disorders. Her work uses advanced methods in neuroimaging and mobile health which are generalizable. This enables her research program to be dynamic, highly collaborative, and responsive to often urgent issues in addiction.

James C. McPartland, Ph.D., is Professor of Child Psychiatry and Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center. He is a licensed child psychologist and Director of the Yale Developmental Disabilities Clinic. He is Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Child Study Center and teaches an undergraduate seminar on autism spectrum disorder. Dr. McPartland’s program of research investigates the brain bases of neurodevelopmental conditions to develop biologically-based tools to improve detection and treatment. His research has been continuously supported since 2007 by both federal (NIMH, NICHD, NINDS, NIDCD; R21, R03, K23, R01, U19) and private research grants (NARSAD, the Autism Science Foundation, the Waterloo Foundation, Autism Speaks, the Patterson Trust, the Simons Foundation, the Nancy Taylor Foundation, the Alan B. Slifka Foundation, the Hilibrand Foundation). He is the Principal Investigator of the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials, a US-based effort to identify biomarkers to support intervention research in autism. His contributions to the field have been recognized by multiple awards, including the NARSAD Atherton Young Investigator Award, the International Society for Autism Research Young Investigator Award, the Patterson Trust Clinical Research Award, the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Klerman Prize, and the APA Sara S. Sparrow Early Career Research Award. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science and has published 5 books and over 170 scholarly works on autism and related topics. He has served on the executive boards of the International Society for Autism Research and the APA Division of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities/Autism Spectrum Disorder and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, the Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities, the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, and the Encyclopedia of Autism and Related Disorders.

Dr. Tinaz attended medical school at the University of Istanbul Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey. As a clinical research fellow at the Behavioral Neurology and Movement Disorders Division at the Department of Neurology, Istanbul University, she was an associate investigator and member of the clinical team of the first epidemiological study on Alzheimer's disease in Turkey. She expanded her skills to include neuroimaging as a graduate student of the Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory at Boston University. She completed her residency training in Neurology at the Boston University Medical Center. During her fellowship in the Human Motor Control Section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, she was involved in the clinical evaluation and care of patients with the full spectrum of movement disorders including Parkinson's disease, dystonia, Tourette's syndrome, essential tremor, and psychogenic movement disorders. She was also the lead investigator of several multimodal neuroimaging projects using functional and structural MRI, and Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. Dr. Tinaz is a board-certified neurologist and treats patients with various movement disorders with a particular interest in Parkinson's disease. She also conducts multimodal neuroimaging research in movement disorders.

Dr. Yang Yanghong is a physician from the University of South China, Hunan, China. She has a research background in clinical research, studying Frontotemporal Dementia and Parkinson's disease. Her current research interests involve utilizing PET imaging to investigate the pathophysiology of brain disorders. She is a postdoctoral fellow in the NeuroPET Program, where she studies synaptic alterations in Meditation, Essential Tremor, Parkinson's disease, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Frontotemporal Dementia.