Journey into Research

My path in research began early on, starting with volunteering at the Harvard Medical Hospital System at 12 and then joining my first neuroscience lab under the guidance of Dr. Michael Greenberg in high school. My goal was to gain a deeper understanding of the formation of the hippocampus.

At the age of 14, I had the opportunity to organize a neuroscience conference in New York City with the guidance of my father. I was fortunate to have an inspirational Nobel-Laureate psychiatrist and neuroscientist, Dr. Eric Kandel, accept my invitation to be the keynote speaker. I was in awe of his contributions to humanity and knew I wanted him as a mentor. Following my sophomore year of high school, I took the initiative to live in Washington Heights and work under the mentorship of Dr. Kandel at Columbia University during a transformative summer for me. His leadership prompted me to recognize my love for understanding the human experience beyond just the traditional wet bench and animal studies in neuroscience research. While there, I had the opportunity to work with the sea slug, Aplysia, to gain a deeper understanding of the development and intricacies of long-term memory formation.

Current Research Endeavours

My current interests are driven by the desire to enhance the human experience and stem from the two questions:

What is it that makes us human?
&
What is the basis of consciousness?

Psychedelic Sciences

• The use of psilocybin for mental health: specifically substance use, trauma and disordered eating patterns.

Global Mental Health

• Understanding perceptions across cultures, socioeconomic groups, and methods of treatment

• Implementing scalable, cost-effective methods of mental health education, access to care, and community development programming

Metabolic Psychiatry

• Developing metabolic treatment plans, with strong foundations in nutrition, for the treatment of various states of mental health.

• The power of amino acids for enhancing mood, improving sleep, and decreasing anxiety.