Biography
At Amherst College I became interested in brain research, majored in neuroscience, and planned to do graduate work in this field. While working as a laboratory technician for a year following college, I lived in a house where a young man came to stay immediately following release from his first hospitalization due to schizophrenia. Over the ensuing year, as I watched the illness devastate this man's attempt to grow into a strong and independent person, my interest turned from basic neuroscience to clinical neuropsychiatric research.
During medical school at the University of Connecticut I used nearly every opportunity for electives or summer breaks to do various types of lab research. This included stints with Wade Berrettini's neurogenetics group, and Judy Rapaport's ADHD research group, at the National Institute's of Health.
During residency in psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh I worked directly with both clinical and preclinical schizophrenia researchers, in particular David Lewis. Based on evidence that schizophrenia involves developmental and genetic abnormalities, I sought postdoctoral research training in developmental neurogenetics with John Rubenstein at USCF.
Following residency I started my own laboratory at the Weill Cornell Medical College in July, 2001.
Email: saa2007@med.cornell.edu
