Trainees

Yasmin Zakiniaeiz PhD received two years of 50% salary support, to focus her MRI/PET multimodal program of addiction with sex as a biological variable. Dr. Zakiniaeiz was mentored by Drs Cosgrove and McKee. Her progress includes:

• Received K01 career award from NIAAA titled “Sex Differences in Alcohol Use Disorder Neurodegeneration using Multimodal PET and DTI Neuroimaging.”
• Received Peter F. McManus Trust Charitable Trust Grant titled “Imaging sex differences in dopamine and synaptic density in alcohol use disorder.”
• Was promoted to ladder track faculty (Assistant Professor, Traditional Tenure Track).
• Received the Enoch Gordis Award from the Research Society on Alcoholism, for outstanding research by a junior scientist.
• Received the Early Career Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), for outstanding research by a junior faculty.
• Published 11 peer reviewed papers.

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 neurosteriods on alcohol use disorder. Her translational mentorship team includes Sherry McKee PhD and Ismene Petrakis MD. Her progress includes:

• Received a VA-based career award (Veteran’s Affairs VISN1 Career Development Award) titled “Brexanolone to target stress-induced alcohol use among men and women Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).”
• Received a Pharmacotherapies for Alcohol and Substance Use Disorders Alliance (PASA) planning grant, titled “Brexanolone to target concurrent Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and stress-induced alcohol use in Veterans: A dose finding study.” The PASA grant is pending.
• Published 19 peer reviewed papers.

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:

• R01DK134624-01 (pending 13th percentile). Oral digoxin for the treatment of NASH.
• 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 integration and collaboration among researchers, clinicians, and stakeholders at Yale. The 2023 conference was attending by 110 participants, including NIAAA staff.

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 (in press). doi: 10.1038/s41591-023-02653-5. PMID: 36747741; PMCID: PMC9901058.
• 2023, Annual Pilot Award, Yale Center for the Translational Neuroscience of Alcoholism
• Developing R01 submission to conduct a genetic study of sex differences in alcohol use and alcohol use disorder.

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:

• Developing a K01 submission for Feb 2024 titled “Relating Brain Metabolomics to Clinical Features of Alcohol Use Disorder.”
• Presenting symposium talk at RSA titled “Predicting heavy drinking during outpatient alcohol use treatment using machine learning."

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.