My research asks how internal biological states shape substance use vulnerability, behavior, and recovery. I study this question across neuroendocrinology, metabolism, resilience, and clinical data science. A major goal of my work is to understand why recovery differs across people, biological states, and clinical contexts.
Research Areas
Substance use disorder recovery as a state-dependent process
Recovery from substance use disorders is often treated as a fixed outcome, but I am interested in how recovery changes with biological and clinical state. Factors such as metabolic health, hospitalization, stress, medication exposure, and resilience may all influence whether someone stabilizes or worsens over time. My work uses clinical data to study these recovery patterns in medically complex patients.
Metabolic dysfunction and clinical recovery in substance use disorders
Metabolic conditions such as type 2 diabetes and obesity are common in clinical populations, but they are not always centered in substance use disorder research. I study whether metabolic dysfunction predicts poor recovery among hospitalized adults with substance use disorders. This work helps connect addiction research with broader questions about cardiometabolic health, medical complexity, and recovery.
Menopause as a critical period for substance use disorder risk and recovery
I am interested in menopause as a critical biological period that may affect substance use disorder risk, treatment response, and recovery. Menopause involves changes in ovarian hormones, metabolism, mood, sleep, and cardiometabolic health, all of which may shape addiction-related outcomes. This direction connects my doctoral work on estradiol with my current interest in clinical recovery across the lifespan.
Estradiol, L-type calcium channels, and cocaine abstinence
My doctoral research examined how ovarian hormones, especially estradiol, interact with L-type calcium channel mechanisms during cocaine abstinence. I studied cocaine seeking, anxiety-like behavior, and social behavior in female rats to understand how hormone-sensitive mechanisms shape addiction-related behavior. This work continues to guide my interest in how internal biological states influence vulnerability and recovery.
Psychological resilience and measurement
In my current postdoctoral work at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute at the University of Utah, I work on the development and validation of a psychometric instrument to assess psychological resilience in adults. This project focuses on how resilience can be measured in a way that is meaningful for clinical and translational research. My role includes participant visits, human subjects research procedures, statistical analysis, and manuscript development.
Clinical data science and prediction modeling
I use harmonized electronic health record data, including OMOP-formatted clinical data, to study recovery outcomes in hospitalized patients. I am especially interested in models that are interpretable and clinically useful, rather than models that only maximize prediction accuracy. This work supports my broader goal of building recovery models that account for sex, metabolic health, and changing clinical state.
Current Projects
Clinical risk prediction for poor recovery among hospitalized adults with substance use disorders
This project examines whether clinical, metabolic, and demographic factors can predict poor recovery among hospitalized adults with substance use disorders. I am particularly interested in whether metabolic dysfunction, including type 2 diabetes and obesity, identifies patients at higher risk for poor outcomes. This work is part of my transition from preclinical addiction neuroscience into patient-oriented clinical data science.
Resilience instrument development and validation
This project focuses on developing and validating a new measure of psychological resilience in adults. The work combines clinical interviews, participant study visits, quantitative analysis, and psychometric validation. It is helping me build skills in clinical research methods and measurement science.
Sex-informed approaches to addiction and recovery
Across my work, I ask how sex hormones, hormonal transitions, and biological variation shape addiction-related outcomes. This includes preclinical studies of estradiol and cocaine abstinence, as well as clinical questions about menopause, metabolic health, and recovery. My long-term goal is to make sex-informed substance use disorder research more clinically useful.
Training and Approach
I earned my Ph.D. in the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program at Yale University, where I trained in behavioral neuroscience, neuroendocrinology, and addiction biology. I also have experience in genomics, computational biology, single-cell analysis, statistics, and clinical prediction modeling from research roles at Yale, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, The Jackson Laboratory, and the University of Pennsylvania. These experiences allow me to move between basic neuroscience questions and clinical data-driven studies.
Current Direction
My research is moving toward a program centered on biological state and recovery in substance use disorders. I am especially interested in how ovarian hormones, menopause, metabolism, resilience, and clinical context interact to shape risk and recovery. Across projects, I return to one question: How do internal biological states shape behavior, vulnerability, and recovery?
For a full list of publications, manuscripts, and presentations, please visit the publications, ORCID, or CV tab.