Lab Members

Dr. Powers is an Associate Professor at the Yale University Department of Psychiatry and Medical Director and Associate Director of the PRIME Psychosis Risk Clinic at Yale. In addition to treating individuals who suffer from the symptoms of early psychosis, he uses computational approaches to understand how sensory systems might go awry to produce hallucinations and other symptoms of psychosis.

Silmilly is the laboratory manager for the Powers Lab at the Yale University Department of Psychiatry. She oversees all the research studies and laboratory staff in the Powers Lab. She participates in the development, training, and implementation of the research protocols and data management. She collaborates with the Powers Lab team members to ensure that research projects are proceeding according to protocol, schedule, budget and clinical standards. Silmilly has a special interest in understanding the role of chemical messengers and risk-related biomarkers in the onset of psychosis.

Dr. Alexandria Bond is a postdoc with the Yale School of Medicine Psychiatry Department. After doing some cognitive neuroscience, Carnegie Mellon gave her a PhD. In her previous work, she explored how biological agents learn dynamically within naturalistic environments. Currently, Dr. Bond has embarked on a captivating journey into the realm of precision psychiatry. She aims to develop machine learning models capable of predicting the progression of neurodivergent states over time. Through her research, she seeks to shed light on both the unique strengths and challenges associated with neurodiversity, improving our comprehensive understanding and enhancing the support systems available.

Max Greenwald is an MD/PhD Student interested in neuropsychiatry completing his PhD research in the lab of Albert Powers, MD. PhD. He received a B.A. in Neuroscience from Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT in 2018. In 2016, Max completed a summer project studying the biogenesis of dense core vesicles (DCVs) using molecular biology approaches in Michael Ailion’s lab at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA -- Max's hometown. He spent the next two years in Glen Ernstrom’s lab at Middlebury College studying interactions and mechanisms of synaptic vesicles proteins involved in neurotransmitter loading, completing a senior thesis which earned him High Honors in Neuroscience. Following these experiences, Max became interested in human neuroscience and clinical research and was awarded a research fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). After a year spent backpacking in South & Central America, he worked for two years at NIMH in the Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch (ETPB) clinical research lab under Carlos Zarate researching ketamine’s psychoactive and rapid-acting antidepressant effects. Max remains extremely interested in translational psychiatry research working with human subjects, with a special interest in pro-neuroplastic psychoactive therapeutics and non-ordinary states of consciousness. Outside of medicine, Max is an avid lover of traveling and the outdoors, and he tries to spend as much time as humanly possible outside of work hiking, running, eating, talking with friends, and spotting critters in the woods.

Gabriel Hosein (He/They) is currently a Postgraduate Research Associate in the Powers Lab. Currently, they are helping investigate the neuro-mechanisms behind auditory verbal hallucinations using neuroimaging techniques (fMRI and Wet/DryEEG), and computational psychophysics tasks. Prior to his time in the Powers Lab, he received a B.A in neuroscience from Oberlin College. Gabriel’s research journey started in Dr. Leslie Kwakye’s Lab prior to their first year in undergrad, as a part of Oberlin College’s STRONG (Science & Technology Research Opportunities for a New Generation) program. Over his four years at Oberlin, he continued to do research in Dr. Kwakye’s lab, ultimately receiving and completing the Oberlin College Research Fellowship. His research interests lie in sensory perception, neurodegeneration, psychology, and cognition. He aims to understand how cognitive processes, sensory perception, neurodegenerative, and neuro-inflammatory processes can interact and contribute to the development of different psychiatric disorders. He is passionate about how tools can be created, not only to identify these mechanisms, but to increase accessibility and quality of life for those experiencing distressing psychological issues. In addition to his research, Gabriel enjoys helping people of all ages develop and cultivate their interest in STEM, and his broader interests lie in education and developmental psychology.

Megan is a post doctoral associate in the Yale School of Medicine Power's Lab. The lab utilizes computational approaches to understand the symptomology of mental illnesses like schizophrenia. She is interested in using multimodal data collection techniques including neuroimaging, electroencephalography, and behavioral measures to study the neural circuitry for recognizing and processing real human faces during naturalistic interaction in clinical and non-clinical populations.

Dr. Rashina Seabury (she/her) is a postdoctoral researcher in the Powers Lab in the Department of Psychiatry. Her research is focused on identifying behavioral markers and neural correlates that are predictive of future conversion to psychosis. Dr. Seabury's doctoral research focused on the role of metacognition in conferring risk for psychotic illness and interrogating which large-scale functional brain networks are involved in aberrations in metacognitive processing in those with and at-risk for psychosis. In her postdoctoral work in the Powers Lab, she is applying computational approaches to identify behavioral, cognitive, and neural markers that are predictive of future conversion in children and young adults who are at genetic high-risk for psychosis.

Andrew Sheldon received his undergraduate training at the University of California Berkley with a concentration in Physics before attending the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health for his M.D. PhD where he applied computational methods and modeling to neuroimaging data to better understand the interactions between attention and working memory. After completing this work in 2019, he was accepted into the Solnit integrated research track combined residency and fellowship in adult and child psychiatry, where he currently works in the Al Powers lab using computational modeling approaches to understand the neural mechanisms underlying hallucinations, in addition to his clinical psychiatry duties caring for children and adolescents through the Yale Child Study Center and Yale New Haven Children's hospital.

Ely graduated from Yale College with a B.S. in Cognitive Science and is in the process of applying to medical schools. He has been working with the Powers Lab on various projects over the last four years, including the launch of the Control Over Perceptual Experiences (COPE) Project. In addition to his interest in psychosis and voice-hearing, Ely has interests in the mind-body connection, language, literacy, deafness, and disability.