Laboratory of Behavioral and Genomic Neuroscience

Contact Information
- Lab: +1 301 402 3519
- Fax: +1 301 480 1952
- Mailing Address
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
5625 Fishers Lane, Room 2N09
Rockville , MD 20852
Overview of the Lab
The overarching mission of the lab is to understand the neural basis of cognitive and emotional regulation and how these critical mental processes are mediated by discrete neural circuits and moderated in function by genetic variation and environmental insults, including stress and alcohol.
Lab Members











Selected Publications
Gunduz-Cinar O., Castillo L.I., Xia M., Van Leer E., Brockway E.T., Pollack G.A., Yasmin F., Bukalo O., Limoges A., Oreizi-Esfahani S., Kondev V., Báldi R., Dong A., Harvey-White J., Cinar R., Kunos G., Li Y., Zweifel L.S., Patel S., Holmes A. (2023) A cortico-amygdala neural substrate for endocannabinoid modulation of fear extinction. Neuron. S0896-6273(23)00482-8. Pubmed
Hagihara KM, Bukalo O, Zeller M, Aksoy-Aksel A, Karalis N, Limoges A, Rigg T, Campbell T, Mendez A, Weinholtz C, Mahn M, Zweifel LS, Palmiter RD, Ehrlich I, Lüthi A, Holmes A. (2021) Intercalated amygdala clusters orchestrate a switch in fear state. Nature. 594(7863):403-407 Pubmed
Piantadosi PT, Halladay LR, Radke AK, Holmes A. (2021) Advances in understanding meso-cortico-limbic-striatal systems mediating risky reward seeking. J Neurochem. 157(5):1547-1571 PubMed
Glover LR, McFadden KM, Bjorni M, Smith SR, Rovero NG, Oreizi-Esfahani S, Yoshida T, Postle AF, Nonaka M, Halladay LR, Holmes A. (2020) A prefrontal-bed nucleus of the stria terminalis circuit limits fear to uncertain threat. Elife 15;9:e60812 PubMed
Halladay LR, Kocharian A, Piantadosi PT, Authement ME, Lieberman AG, Spitz NA, Coden K, Glover LR, Costa VD, Alvarez VA, Holmes A. (2020) Prefrontal Regulation of Punished Ethanol Self-administration. Biol Psychiatry 87(11):967-978 PubMed
Sengupta A, Holmes A. (2019) A discrete dorsal raphe to basal amygdala 5-HT circuit calibrates aversive memory. Neuron. 103(3):489-505 PubMed
Patel S, Hill MN, Cheer JF, Wotjak CT, Holmes A. (2017) The endocannabinoid system as a target for novel anxiolytic drugs. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 76(Pt A):56-66. Pubmed
Craske MG, Stein MB, Eley TC, Milad MR, Holmes A, Rapee RM, Wittchen H-U. (2017) Anxiety disorders. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 3:17024. Pubmed
Izquierdo A, Brigman JL, Radke AK, Rudebeck PH, Holmes A (2016) The neural basis of reversal learning: An updated perspective. Neuroscience. covered in ScienceNews. Pubmed
Bukalo O, Pinard CR, Silverstein S, Brehm C, Hartley NH, Whittle N, Colacicco G, Busch E, Patel S, Singewald N, Holmes (2015). Prefrontal inputs to the amygdala instruct fear extinction memory formation. Science Advances 1(6):e1500251. Pubmed
O Gunduz-Cinar 1, K P MacPherson, R Cinar, J Gamble-George, K Sugden, B Williams, G Godlewski, T S Ramikie, A X Gorka, S O Alapafuja, S P Nikas, A Makriyannis, R Poulton, S Patel, A R Hariri, A Caspi, T E Moffitt, G Kunos, A Holmes. (2013) Convergent translational evidence of a role for anandamide in amygdala-mediated fear extinction, threat processing and stress-reactivity. Mol Psychiatry. 18(7):813-23. Pubmed
Griebel G, Holmes A (2013) 50 years of hurdles and hope in anxiolytic drug discovery. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 12:667-687 Pubmed
Other Lab Resources
Section Alumni
Maya Xia, B.A., currently at Columbia University, MD/PhD student
Elise Van Leer, B.S., currently at Emory University, MD student
Sarah Perry, B.S., currently at University of Maryland, PhD student
Rodrigo Sandon Veliz, B.S., currently at University of Maryland, B.S. student
Sydney Zimmerman, B.S.
Victoria Offenberg, B.S.
Shana Silverstein, Ph.D., currently postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Leo Zsembik, BS, currently at University of California San Francisco, graduate student
Laura Castillo, BA, currently at University of Maryland, graduate student
Kendall Coden, currently at Stanford University Masters in Laboratory Animal Sciences
Hyesun Choi, BS, currently at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, MD Student
Adriana Mendez, BS, Mount Sinai PhD Program in Neuroscience
Chase Weinholtz, BA, Washington University PhD Program in Neuroscience
Sarvar Oreizi-Esfahani, BS, currently at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, MD Student
Sawyer Smith, BS, Brown University PhD Program in Pathobiology
Tiffany Campbell, BA, DePaul University Masters in Human Computer Interaction
Tanner Rigg, BA, currently teaching English in Thailand with CIEE
Nathen Spitz, BA, currently at Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, MD Student
Mark Yde, BA, currently working at STEMCELL Technologies
Kerry McFadden, BA, currently at University College Dublin, Ireland, MA in History of Medicine Student
Mio Nonaka, PhD, currently at Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institutes of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Takayuki Yoshida, PhD, currently Assistant Professor, Department of Neuropharmacology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan tyoshida@med.hokudai.ac.jp
Will Taylor, BA, currently at the University of Southern California Neuroscience Graduate Program, PhD Student
Gabrielle Pollack, BA, currently at Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY, MD Student
Abby Lieberman, BA, currently at The University of Pennsylvania, graduate student
Ayesha Sengupta, PhD, currently postdoctoral fellow at National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Lucas Glover, PhD, currently postdoctoral fellow at John Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, in Michaela Gallagher's group
Lindsay Halladay, PhD, currently Assistant Professor of Psychology, Santa Clara University, https://www.scu.edu/cas/psychology/faculty-and-staff/lindsay-halladay/
lhalladay@scu.edu
Emma Brockway, BA, currently at the University of Texas at Austin, PhD student in Graduate School in Neuroscience
Abby Postle, BS, currently at the University of Maryland School of Medicine MD/PhD student
Adrina Kocharian, BS, currently at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, MD/PhD student
Aaron Limoges, BS, currently at the Columbia University in the city of New York, PhD student
Elizabeth Kirby, currently working at the FDA
Anna Lipkin,BS, currently at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) PhD student
Courtney Pinard, PhD, Manager of Educational and Career Development Programs, American Association of Immunologists cpinard@aai.org
Anna Radke, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Miami University www.aradlab.com/
aradke@miamioh.edu
Hadley Bergstrom, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Vassar College https://pages.vassar.edu/bergstromlab/
habergstrom@vassar.edu
https://www.vassar.edu/faculty/habergstrom/
LabTV Interview with Hadley Bergstrom
Katie Kaugars, BS, currently at Albert Einstein College of Medicine MD/PhD student LabTV Interview with Katie Kaugars
Nick Jury, PhD, currently Science Policy Analyst in the Office of Science Policy, Engagement, Education, and Communications at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute within the National Institutes of Health NickJury@hotmail.com
LabTV Interview with Nick Jury
Maxine Reger, PhD
Erica Busch, MS
Erica Sagalyn, MA, currently at The Bridge, New York City, NY
Charles Pickens, PhD, currently tenured faculty, Department of Psychology, Kansas State University
Shaun Flynn, MD, currently resident at Brown University
Munisa Bachu, BA
Marguerite Camp, BS, currently Senior Associate in the Public Sector Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Washington DC
SophieMasneuf, PhD, currently post-doctoral fellow, Zurich University
Giovanni Colacicco, MD, PhD, currently Senior Scientist and Senior Lecturer, Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich
Rachel Daut, PhD, currently postdoc at University of Colorado at Boulder
Carly Kiselycznyk, PhD, currently at Yale University
Paul Fitzgerald, PhD, currently postdoctoral fellow at University of Michigan
Carolyn Graybeal, PhD, currently a fellow at the National Academy of Sciences
Jonathan Brigman, PhD, currently Associate Professor & Regents’ Lecturer, Department of Neurosciences, University of New Mexico, JBrigman@Salud.UNM.edu
Lauren DePoy, PhD, currently postdoc at University of Pittsburgh
Kathryn MacPherson, BS, currently at Emory University
Daniel Fisher, BS, currently at Northwestern University
Aaron Plitt, BS, currently at University of Texas Southwestern
Alicia Izquierdo, PhD, currently Professor, Department of Psychology, Brain Research Institute, Neuroscience IDP, University of California, Los Angeles, aizquie@psych.ucla.edu
Janel Boyce-Rustay, PhD, currently Senior Director, Regulatory Program Management at Genentech, San Francisco
Rose-Marie Karlsson, PhD, currently at NIMH
Rachel Millstein, PhD, currently Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
Lisa Wiedholz, BA, currently at Abbott Laboratories
Rebecca Yang, BA, currently at The Mayo Clinic Rochester
Kathryn Hefner, PhD , currently Research Assistant Professor at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD
Poonam Mathur, DO, MPH, currently Assistant Professor, University of Maryland School of Medicine
Benjamin Palachick, MD, currently surgical critical care fellow at Cooper University Healthcare in Camden, NJ
Yi-Chyan Chen, MD, PhD, currently Director, Department of Psychiatry, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Hualian, Taiwan
Maxine Norcross, BS, currently at NIMH
Tara Wright, BS, currently at University of North Carolina
Michael Feyder, PhD, currently at Brain Modulation Lab, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Pittsburgh, PA
Jessica Ihne Reed, PhD, currently postdoc at NIMH
Susanna Weber, BS, currently at Gottingen University
Lauren Lederle, MD, currently at San Fransisco VA Medical Center
Benita Hurd, MD, currently regional anethesia fellow at Emory University
Collaborators
Dr. Timothy J. Bussey and Dr. Lisa M. Saksida, Robarts Research Institute, Western University; Weblink
Dr. Tom Kash, University of North Carolina; Weblink
Dr. David Lovinger, Dr. Veronica Alvarez, Laboratory for Integrative Neuroscience, NIAAA; Weblink
Dr. Sachin Patel, Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Weblink
Dr. Mario Penzo, Unit on the Neurobiology of Affective Memory, NIMH; Weblink
Dr. Danny Winder, Department of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Weblink