Trainees

Yasmin Zakiniaeiz PhD received 50% salary support from the Core (2020-2022), to develop her program of research focused on multi-modal neuroimaging to examine sex differences in alcohol use. As indicators of her success:

• K01 from NIAAA “Sex Differences in Alcohol Use Disorder Neurodegeneration using Multimodal PET and DTI Neuroimaging.”
• McManus Trust Charitable Trust Grant titled “Imaging sex differences in dopamine and synaptic density in alcohol use disorder.”
• Promoted to Assistant Professor in Psychiatry (Traditional Tenure Track) and negotiated $1M start-up package.
• Enoch Gordis Award from the Research Society on Alcoholism, for outstanding research by a junior scientist.
• Early Career Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), for outstanding junior faculty research.
• Published 16 peer reviewed papers linked to the SCORE

MacKenzie Peltier PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry with expertise in human pharmacology. Dr. Peltier received two years of 50% salary support to focus on the effect of ovarian hormones and neurosteroids on alcohol use disorder. Her translational mentorship team includes Sherry McKee PhD and Ismene Petrakis MD. Her progress includes:

• VA-based career award (Veteran’s Affairs VISN1 Career Development Award) “Brexanolone to target stress-induced alcohol use among men and women Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).”
• Pilot grant from National Center for PTSD “Semaglutide to reduce food/alcohol cue reactivity among trauma exposed veterans.”
• Department of Defense Grant “Brexanolone to target concurrent Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and stress-induced alcohol use in Veterans: A dose finding study.” $1.2 million.
• Guest Edited Special Issue on Women & Alcohol, Current Addiction Reports.
• Published 31 peer reviewed papers linked to the SCORE

Bubu Banini MD/PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine. Dr. Banini began translational research as an undergraduate student, subsequently pursuing a combined MD/PhD in genetics and molecular biology. After residency and chief residency in internal medicine, her interest in research led her to a postdoctoral research fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where she studied mechanisms of liver inflammation, fibrosis and hepatocellular cancer. She continued this research with a four-year NIH-sponsored T-32 research/clinical fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). There she studied basic and translational research in liver inflammation and fibrosis. Dr. Banini then pursued an additional year of training in transplant hepatology and was involved in developing standards and guidelines for liver transplant candidacy in patients with severe AH.

Dr. Banini is mentored by Drs Ismene Petrakis, Wajahat Mehal, and Vasilis Vasiliou. Dr. Banini is currently completing her first year of 50% salary support. Her progress includes:

• R01 from NIDDK “Oral digoxin for the treatment of NASH”. $3 million.
• 2023 Yale Cancer Disparities Award titled “Reducing disparities in liver cancer outcomes in Connecticut” $125,000.
• Developed and organized YCARE (Yale Conference for Alcohol Research and Education) with the aim to increase education and collaboration among healthcare professionals, researchers, and stakeholders in the Northeast region. The 2023 conference was attending by 110 participants, including NIAAA staff.
• Appointment to Associate Director, Clinical and Translational Core, Yale Liver Center.
• Appointment to National Medical Visionary Board, American Liver Foundation
• Clinical Research Leadership Training, American College of Gastroenterology, 2024.

Hang Zhou PhD is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and trained in computational biology. The focus of Dr. Zhou’s work is to understand the human genome and how it affects human traits and diseases. Dr. Zhou’s mentorship team includes Marc Potenza MD, and Joel Gelernter MD. Dr. Zhou is currently receiving his first year of 50% salary support. His progress includes:

• Zhou H, et al. Multi-ancestry study of the genetics of problematic alcohol use in over 1 million individuals. Nature Medicine. PMCID: PMC9901058. This paper has received much media attention.
• Promoted to Assistant Professor, Dept of Biomedical Informatics & Data Science.
• Pilot grant from Yale CTNA “Genetics of sex differences in alcohol use and alcohol use disorder.” (co-funded with SCORE)
• Pending NIAAA R01 “Genetics of sex differences in alcohol use and alcohol use disorder”; 2 other pending R01s (NCI, NIMH).

Robert Kohler PhD, is an Associate Research Scientist in Psychiatry, trained as a behavioral neuroscientist. His current work has been focused on computational methods to identify risk factors for the emergence of psychopathology during development in humans. Dr. Kohler’s mentorship team includes Sara Yip PhD, Sherry McKee PhD, and Graeme Mason PhD. Dr. Kohler is currently receiving his first year of 50% salary support. His progress includes:

• K01 to NIAAA pending “Identification of whole-brain functional and structural brain networks following a priming dose of alcohol.”
• Early Career Travel award from College of Problems on Drug Dependence, 2024.
• Preprocessed and collated data from 5 NIAAA-led medication trials to examine sex differences in treatment trajectories. Papers based on this data are under review.
• Presented in RSA 2024 symposium “Data-driven predictions of drinking during treatment for alcohol use disorder”

Vernon Garcia-Rivas PhD, is currently a trainee in Marina Picciotto’s laboratory who received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Bordeaux, France. Recent progress includes:

• Garcia-Rivas, V., Thomas, M.A., Soares, A.R., Picciotto, M.R. and Mineur, Y.S. “Involvement of the Basolateral and Central Amygdala in Stress-induced Ethanol Intake in Female Mice”, presented at the Society for Neuroscience Conference, Washington DC, Nov 11-15 2023.
• Garcia-Rivas, V., Soares, A.R., Thomas, M.A., Mineur, Y.S. and Picciotto, M.R “Stress-induced Escalation of Ethanol Intake in Female Mice Requires Functional Microglia”, presented at the Research Society on Alcohol Annual Meeting, Bellevue WA, Jun 24-28 2023.

Nathalie Barrios is a graduate student from Clarkson University, who completed a dual-degree in Psychology and Mathematics. She is currently part of Yale’s Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) which helps students from underrepresented groups gain the skills and credentials necessary for advanced graduating training. With Career Enhancement funds, we were able to support an additional slot on this program, allowing Nathalie to join Dr. Kelly Cosgrove’s laboratory for a 1-year period. Nathalie’s training has been focused on sex differences, alcohol use disorder, and neuroimaging. At the completion of her training as part of the Yale-SCORE, Nathalie plans to begin a PhD program in Neuroscience to continue her research-focused career.