Shivani Bhatt

Shivani Bhatt grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, and developed afondness for many of the things she still enjoys: singing, cold weather bragging rights, and poring over maps of the world. Making the move to slightly warmer latitudes of New Haven to attend Yale College, she shifted to studying maps of the brain, specifically the formation of intricate visual circuits in newborn mice. Alongside this work, Shivani witnessed how mental illness changed the lives of friends and their loved ones who came together around them in times of crisis and became interested the neurobiology underlying mental illness. She entered the Yale MD-PhD program and joined the laboratory of Kelly Cosgrove, where she used PET brain imaging to study brain immune and stress markers in individuals with PTSD using PET. Shivani enjoyed the multidisciplinary nature of her graduate work, spanning from clinical phenomenology of PTSD to compartmental modeling and pharmacokinetics. Similarly, she was drawn to the biopsychosocial approach of psychiatry, which revealed parallels between study participants and patients with PTSD she saw at the Yale Refugee Clinic: from increased cardiovascular disease burden, to complex feelings of guilt or loss, to social determinants like financial instability or sense of community. Shivani aspires to integrate these multidisciplinary approaches as a physician-scientist to arrive at better outcomes for individuals suffering from trauma-related and substance use disorders. In her free time, she enjoys exploring New Haven on foot or bike with friends and family, and singing, which—from Indian classical to a cappella to jazz—has been a constant grounding presence and inspiration for incorporating multiple perspectives.