Special Projects Team
Briana K. Chen, PhD, (NPP Special Projects Manager), Columbia University, New York, NY USA
Dr. Chen is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and subsequently received her PhD from Columbia University. Her research focuses on investigating the neural substrates underlying stress resilience, with the ultimate goal of developing sex-specific pharmacological interventions to prevent and treat stress-induced psychiatric disorders. She has received numerous awards for her research, including a National Research Service Award from the NIMH, a Rising Stars in Neuroscience Award from the University of Utah, and an ACNP Travel Award. Most recently, she was selected for the 2023 edition of Forbes 30 Under 30: Healthcare.
Hayley H. A. Thorpe, (NPP Editorial Intern), Western University, London, ON, Canada
Dr. Hayley H. A. Thorpe is a postdoctoral fellow at Western University in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology. She completed her BSc in Neuroscience at Dalhousie University (2011-2015), her MSc in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph (2016-2019), and her PhD in Biomedical Sciences with a Neuroscience Specialization at the University of Guelph (2019-2023). In the laboratories Dr. Jibran Khokhar (Western University) and Dr. Sandra Sanchez-Roige (University of California San Diego), Dr. Thorpe uses large-scale human biobanks and genomic techniques (e.g., genome-wide association study) to identify novel biological relationships between substance use and psychopathology that can be mechanistically explored using animal models. Her research background also includes using animal and cellular models to investigate drug-related cognition and behavior, synaptic physiology, and cortical development. Dr. Thorpe has received dozens of accolades and travel awards for her work, including a CCIC Trainee Research Spotlight Award, an NSERC PGS-D, and a CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship that funds her current research.
Lucas Trambaiolli, (NPP Editorial Intern), McLean Hospital - Harvard Medical School, Belmont, MA, USA
Lucas Trambaiolli, Ph.D., is an Instructor in Psychiatry in the Basic Neuroscience Division at McLean Hospital - Harvard Medical School. He received his B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering in 2011 and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Cognition in 2014 and 2018, respectively, from the Federal University of ABC, Brazil. He was a visiting researcher at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) - University of Quebec, Canada (2017) and at the University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Germany (2023). Dr. Trambaiolli’s research combines the precision of non-human primate neuroanatomy and machine learning to identify neuroimaging-based biomarkers of neuropsychiatric disorders and to develop new brain-computer interfaces and neurofeedback protocols for clinical applications. He received numerous awards for his research, including the NIH Outstanding Scholars in Neuroscience Award (2020), ACNP Travel Award (2021), and NIMH Pathway to Independence Award (2023).
