Neuroscience Research Training Program (NRTP)

Samuel Dienel (Sam), MD, PhD, is a psychiatry resident in Yale’s Neuroscience Research Training Program. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh, with minors in Chemistry and Applied Statistics. After completing his undergraduate training, he began working as a Research Assistant in the lab of Dr. David Lewis, working with the Brain Tissue Donation Program. He then matriculated to Pitt’s Medical Scientist Training Program, where he continued his work in Dr. Lewis’ lab. His thesis focused on the postmortem alterations to a group of cortical inhibitory neurons called somatostatin neurons in people with schizophrenia, using novel approaches to label target transcripts in sections of the postmortem human prefrontal cortex. Going forward at Yale, he hopes to apply his training in molecular neuroscience to address questions about the developmental patterning of prefrontal cortical circuits and how alterations in those developmental trajectories can give rise to psychiatric disorders with impaired cognitive function, such as schizophrenia and autism.

I completed my medical training at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece at the height of the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. Fascinated by transcultural psychiatry, I spent two years as a resident and rural doctor serving on the Greek island of Leros and the island's refugee reception center. The clinical practice sparked my interest in how healthcare information can be employed to refine psychiatric phenotypes, so I pursued a Master’s in Health Data Analysis at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where I delved into psychiatric genetics. During my post-doctoral fellowship at Yale, I used electronic health records, wearable device data, and multi-omic information to understand the underlying causes of anxiety disorders in diverse populations and to explore the shared and distinct genetic factors across various psychiatric conditions. As a resident in the Yale Neuroscience Research Track, I will focus on using multidimensional patient-related information to improve clinical prediction, emphasizing enhancing representation in healthcare data.

I am interested in neural control of innate behavioral drives, with a focus on acute hunger, satiety, and energy homeostasis. Clinically, this pertains most directly to eating disorders, and more broadly to aberrant reward perception and ultimately entrenchment of counter-survival behaviors. My interest stemmed from a background as a track athlete and later an amateur physique athlete. Come and lift heavy with me in the gym! I came to the U.S. from China at the age of 18 to pursue my undergraduate education. I got my first biomedical research experience at Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute, where I studied retina development and degeneration in Dr. Valeria Canto-Soler’s lab. After college, I spent two years in Durban, South Africa and conducted research on bacterial molecular genetics and DNA topology. I lived in a hostel and shared happiness and sorrow with vibrant local university students, hardworking Zulu women who came into the city for better job opportunities, and an adorable landlord gentleman of Dutch descent. I then returned to the U.S. for the MD PhD training. I completed my PhD in Dr. Scott Sternson’s lab at HHMI Janelia Research Campus. We were interested in coding of need states and need-fulfilling processes by subregions of the hypothalamus. My colleague Dr. Shengjin Xu and I developed a new research platform that allowed all the sufficiently refined cell types and all behaviors of interest to be studied in the same animal. We were thereby able to make discoveries unattainable by previously existing methods. At Yale, I have joined Dr. Ruslan Medzhitov’s lab. My project focuses on the gut-brain sensing of essential nutrients that we humans do not seem to report specific “craving” for. The imbalance and rebalance of these nutrients track the trajectory of anorexia illness and recovery. I am passionate about connecting this work to clinical care and making eating disorder care at all acuity levels more accessible to patients of all ages and background.

As an undergraduate at Columbia University, I majored in Biomedical Engineering. My formative experience working in the Biomaterials and Interface Tissue Engineering Lab paired with my passion to help patients motivated me to become a physician-scientist. I joined the MD/PhD program at Columbia’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed my thesis work in Dr. Kam Leong’s lab onhow dual-purpose nanomaterials that can deliver chemotherapy and bind to inflammatory damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) thereby mitigating the metastatic spread of breast cancer. My research was funded by an NIH F31 Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Individual National Research Service Award in April 2021. As my desire to become a psychiatrist grew, I developed a novel research plan to test the influence of DAMP-scavenging nanoparticles on chemobrain side effects, particularly anxiety. My thesis work was awarded the Miriam Berkman Spotnitz Award in Oncology at Columbia’s medical school graduation in 2023. Going forward, I would like to conduct clinical research aimed at better understanding or improving treatments of women’s mental health and it’s incredible to have the opportunity to pursue this research at Yale.

Henry Kietzman, MD, PhD, is a resident in Yale’s Neuroscience Research Training Program. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in Neuroscience. He then enrolled in the Medical Scientist Training Program at Emory University. During medical school, he organized a resilience initiative to promote social connection and decrease burnout among medical students. He then transitioned to his dissertation work in the lab of Dr. Shannon Gourley, where he performed circuit-level analyses to understand how connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala allow social experiences to shape behavior in rodents. At Yale, he aims to continue using rodent models to understand the neural building blocks of social cognition, while developing new pharmacological and psychological interventions for those with mental illness focused on improving social connectedness. This dovetails with a vested interest in understanding new patient-centered treatments to decrease mental illness burden in LGBTQ+ individuals.

Songjun William (Will) Li, MD, PhD, is a psychiatry resident in Yale’s Neuroscience Research Training Program. He graduated from Emory University with a bachelors degree double majoring in music performance as well as neuroscience and behavioral biology. There, he studied the neurobiological basis of relational memory formation in the Rhesus macaque model under the guidance of Dr. Beth Buffalo. After college, he joined Dr. Leslie Ungerleider’s lab at the NIMH to investigate facial processing using as a post-bacc fellow. Will then moved to Boston, where he continued his studies at the Boston University School of Medicine, and completed his PhD dissertation with Dr. Ziv Williams at Mass General Hospital evaluating single-neuronal responses during complex social decision making in mice. His research has, thus far, revealed a putative executive mechanism in the prefrontal cortical network that allows animals to evaluate social information about others that can adaptively influence pro-social decisions, competitive effort, and sociability. Will's current research interests aim to build upon our understanding of how the brain processes and encodes socially motivated behaviors, uncovering the mechanisms that go awry in psychosocial disorders using rodent models, and exploring novel treatment options – such as neuromodulation and psychedelics – to restore behavioral function. He is also interested in optimizing digital tools and wearable technologies to detect and track psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, OCD, and PTSD.

As an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I majored in Chemistry and minored in Biology and Political Science. At MIT, I worked in Ed Boyden’s lab and used optogenetics approaches to silence epileptic seizures. I then joined the MD/PhD program at NYU, completing my thesis in Gord Fishell’s lab using single-cell genomics and lineage tracing approaches to study cortical interneuron development. Going forward, I hope to apply basic neuroscience research tools to better understand and treat neuropsychiatric illnesses. I am particularly interested in disorders with a developmental origin, including autism and schizophrenia. I am very excited to join the NRTP at Yale for residency, where I plan to continue my research on fetal brain development.

Daniel (Dan) F. Camacho, MD, PhD, is a Yale Psychiatry resident in the Neuroscience Research Training Program. He attended the University of Michigan, where he received a BS in Chemistry, with distinction, and an MS in Biomedical Engineering. He earned his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Chicago’s Medical Scientist Training Program with a specialization in immunology.  Dan’s professional interests include patient care, research, science communication, and science outreach. His previous research has advanced our understanding of how allergic responses are triggered and how communication between cells of the body can allow cancer cells to grow unchecked. His current research aims to help us understand how interactions between immune cells and the nervous system contribute to mental health and psychiatric illness.

Joe Luchsinger, MD, PhD, is a resident in Yale’s Neuroscience Research Training Program. He completed a BS in neuroscience and psychology and BA in physics at Baldwin Wallace University. During that time, he worked in the Mickley lab studying PTSD and unofficially broke the world record for the world’s longest handshake.  Joe then moved to Vanderbilt University for his MD-PhD. While there, he was the president of his medical school class and the medical school wine club. Towards the end of medical school, his peers elected him into the honor society Alpha Omega Alpha. He also spent much time on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and locally advocating for increased federal investment in biomedical research.  He completed his PhD in the Winder, where he had an NIH fellowship to use preclinical models to study the neurobiology of stress and its relationship to addiction. He aims to continue to use preclinical models to better our understanding of psychiatric illness and improve its treatment.

Dr. Nunes is a research track Psychiatry Resident at Yale University. He completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Stanford University Center for Clinical Research, where he focused on shared decision-making and healthcare disparities. As a member of the PAIN Lab, Dr. Nunes studies pharmacological treatments for patients with chronic pain and substance use disorders, with a particular interest in how healthcare disparities impact pain management for individuals with addiction disorders. He is also dedicated to medical education and mentoring, recognized for his commitment to teaching. Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HmVy8lwAAAAJ&hl=en

I am a physician-economist interested in the neurobiological underpinnings (“neuro-microfoundations”) of economic and health inequality.  My PhD dissertation, guided by David Cutler, Nathan Nunn and David Laibson, examined the impact of post-discharge surgical prescribing on long-term opioid use through an instrumental variables technique.  I have served on faculty of Harvard Medical School, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, and the Harvard Department of Economics, where I teach The Economics of Development and Global Health. Clinically, I am interested in severe mood disorders and suicidality, as well as in traumatic and psychotic pathologies and their links to chronic homelessness. I completed an intern year in General Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital before moving to Psychiatry Residency.  My work has been published in the Journal of Economic Literature, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of Orthopedic Trauma. I previously served as a Consultant to the President of the World Bank under Jim Kim, as a Fulbright fellow in Malawi, and a co-editor of the textbook “Reimagining Global Health” (University of California Press, 2013) with Paul Farmer, Jim Kim and Arthur Kleinman.

Shivani Bhatt is an MD-PhD candidate investigating the neural stress and immune systems in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) using Positron Emission Tomography in the laboratory of Dr. Kelly Cosgrove. Shivani's research projects reflect her clinical interests in stress-related psychiatric disorders including PTSD and addiction, and their intersections with chronic medical illness in the primary care setting. Both have been informed by her experience working as a student provider with underserved populations in Wednesday Evening Clinic, HAVEN Free Clinic, and Yale Refugee Clinic for 3 years. Additionally, Shivani has been involved in shaping medical school curriculum around early professional identification, structural determinants of health, and mental health and burnout in medicine, and is part of current leadership efforts in the Yale MD-PhD Program's Committee on Diversity and Inclusion.Fun Fact: Shivani is a singer in an MD and MD-PhD student Jazz Band, the Railboys.

For the past fifteen years, I have worked as a pediatrician, researcher, educator, and public health practitioner focused on designing, delivering & evaluating interventions to improve outcomes for children and families affected by HIV in Malawi. I am the Co-Founding Director of Tingathe (meaning "together we can" in the local Chichewa language), a program which has been supporting HIV and psychosocial programming and implementation research at >120 health facilities in Malawi. In this role, I secured funding for and managed a portfolio of clinical and research programming (KO1, RO1), as well as a research fellowship program that sought to support and develop young scientists in Malawi. I led some of the first studies in Malawi examining adolescent depression, healthcare worker burnout, intimate partner violence, adverse childhood events, and the impact of a tele-mental health support program. I also served for the past six years as the Research and Implementation Director for the USAID funded Technical Support program, which sought to apply best practices and lessons learned from our programming in Malawi to improve policy and HIV care and treatment implementation in nine other Sub-Saharan African countries. Now, with further clinical and research training in psychiatry, I hope to build on this foundation to explore novel interventions in psychiatry and further promote access to critical mental health services in resource limited settings around the globe.

Dr. Yang Jae Lee graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude double majoring in International Area Studies: Development and Biology from Washington University in St. Louis. In 2015, he developed a deep interest in the Busoga region of Uganda, where he conducted a research project on traditional medicines. Concurrently, he authored a journalism project for which he was awarded the Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for producing the best journalism nationally among students in his category. He continued engaging with the Busoga region, initiating several collaborative projects with academicians, local government, and community members on various public health interventions and development initiatives. In 2018, he founded the 501(c)3 organization Empower Through Health, where he serves as the Executive Director and Chairperson. Empower Through Health is a non-profit organization that provides medical care to a catchment area of 70,000 people and psychiatric care to a catchment area of over 400,000 people. Alongside their medical and research endeavors, they created equitable educational opportunities for both Ugandan and American pre-doctoral students, while also aspiring to establish a leading global mental health hub. Since arriving at Yale, he has concentrated on two primary research objectives: diminishing the stigma associated with mental illness; and, cultivating robust systems of care through working with existing community structures to provide effective mental healthcare in rural areas of low-income countries. Through addressing these crucial issues, he aims to make a meaningful contribution towards enhancing the overall well-being of marginalized communities.

I went to medical school with the intention of becoming an oncologist, building on knowledge I developed in biotech industry research making DNA sequencing assays for clinical research applications. That all changed when in medical school, during a research year-off working at the NIH, I discovered the emerging value of using genomics to uncover the neurogenetic mechanisms underlying serious mental illness.During that research year, working in Dr. Karen Faith Berman’s lab at NIMH, I conducted a neuroimaging-genetics study that showed for the first time a gene-dosage effect on regional white matter myelination in a clinical cohort of children with the 7q11.23 genetic Copy Number Variation (CNV). The knowledge, experience and amazing mentorship from Dr.Berman’s lab emboldened my desire to become a physician-scientist within psychiatry.For residency training, I chose Yale for it’s vibrant research community within the Psychiatry department and the Child Study Center, the ample protected research time provided during residency, and the opportunity for PhD or Master’s level training through the Investigative Medicine Program. At the start of my PGY-2 year, I joined the lab of Dr.Tom Fernandez which focuses on the genomics of childhood onset neuropsychiatric disorders like Tourettes, OCD, ADHD and Schizophrenia. I am currently working on a project investigating genome wide differential gene expression in OCD patients, with the goal of identifying gene networks and distinct biological pathways that may underlie OCD pathology.In the future, I look to further develop research skills in genomics and transcriptomics with the long term goal of becoming an independent investigator working in translational psychiatric genomics.Having grown-up in Uganda, and done college in California, I’ve come to love and appreciate the season changes in the North East! I’m still discovering good running trails in the New Haven area and I continue to be amazed by the variety of restaurants with great food in such a small city.