Office: Administration Building, Room 421D
Office hours: Monday, and Wednesday, 10:00 a.m.-11:45 a.m., by appointment also
Ph.D., Boston College; B.S., University of Ottawa and Dalhousie University
Prior to joining Emmanuel College, I was a postdoctoral research fellow in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, working at McLean Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and The Broad Institute. Since joining the faculty at Emmanuel College in 2012, I continue to pursue basic research in psychiatric disease while having the pleasure of introducing students to diverse topics in neuroscience and psychology, as well as to the process of conducting research.
What I Love About Emmanuel:
I love that students at Emmanuel College interact with their professors--they always say hello when you meet in the hallway and readily stop by your office when they want or need to chat.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
2019
Clare Mehta & Melanie Leussis; Co-principal investigators: The Effects of Same- and Cross-Sex Interactions on Psychosocial and Physiological dimensions of Gender. Psi Chi Faculty Grant; $2000; Received September 2019
2016
Fellowship: NSF-Funded Workshop on Software and Hardware Experiments for Teaching Undergraduate Neuroscience: A Curriculum Development Workshop.
2011
ECOR Postdoctoral Fellowship from the MGH Fund for Medical Discovery Grant title: Role of the bipolar disorder risk gene Ankyrin 3 in resilience to stress and depression. Funded August 2011. Direct costs: $40,000. Role: Principal Investigator.
My research focuses on animal models of psychiatric disease. My goal is to examine how genes and the environment interact during critical periods of development to alter an individual's susceptibility to disease. By looking at changes in both brain and behavior in mouse models, we can better understand the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to psychiatric disease. Further, by identifying animal models with high validity, we are better able to search for new and more efficacious treatment options that are desperately needed in psychiatry. Undergraduate students contribute to this research in a number of diverse and important ways--my research would not be possible without them!
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