Meet the PI Lectures

Dr. Yanhua Huang received her PhD in Neuroscience from Johns Hopkins University, and completed her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and Washington State University. Her work is focused on the neural mechanisms by which sleep regulates the brain reward circuitry. Her lab uses rodent models and a multidisciplinary approach including brain slice electrophysiology, EEG recordings, molecular biology, and behavioral assays. Dr.

Dr. Shaun Eack's primary interests include the development, implementation, and evaluation of psychosocial treatment methodologies to improve the care of people with schizophrenia and related disorders.  He is also interested in the biopsychosocial factors that contribute to recovery and psychosocial outcomes among people with schizophrenia and related disorders, and how the elucidation of these factors can serve to aid novel treatment development efforts. In addition, Dr.

For the past 20 years Dr. Bernie Devlin's Lab has had two major foci, the development or refinement of statistical methods for the analysis of genetic data and the implementation of such methods to discover the genetic basis of disease and related phenotypes. The Devlin Lab developed statistical methods appropriate for large-scale genetic studies and applied them and other methods to characterize the genetic basis of autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia, among others. Recently Dr.

Rajesh Narendran, MD specializes in using positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracers to understand the neurochemical abnormalities in stress-related and addictive disorders in humans. Aside from his work in research, Dr. Narendran is a fully licensed PA physician and a board-certified psychiatrist who treats drug/alcohol addicted and psychiatric patients at the re:solve crisis center at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC.

Location: Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic Auditorium

Dr. Kenneth Perkins' laboratory has examined acute effects of nicotine and cigarette smoking in adults that may explain the persistence of tobacco dependence since 1986. The first two decades of this effort resulted in his being listed among the top 100 most cited authors in tobacco and nicotine research and the top 70 most productive faculty in clinical psychology. Dr.

Dr. Karen Matthews is Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Epidemiology, Psychology, and Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh, where she has served as the Program Director of the Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine Research Training Program since 1983.