Daniela Schiller, PhD
Lab Director
Assistant Professor Psychiatry
Assistant Professor Neuroscience
MSSM Profile Page
Email: daniela.schiller@mssm.edu

Our research—how emotions are formed in the human brain—is situated within the critical link between animal models and the clinical population. Our research strategy, therefore, typically relies on fundamental findings in animals. We aim to collect, through collaborative projects, parallel findings in animals and humans and examine cross species similarities.

Rita Tavares, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Email: rita.tavares@mssm.edu

Using my background on cellular and molecular biology, I am studying possible pharmacological approaches targeting fear memory reconsolidation. In general, I am interested in emotion driven responses that can be used as measures of well being. I am also interested in how social interactions relate with well being.

Avi Mendelsohn, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
Email: ave.mendelsohn@mssm.edu

My primary interest is to unveil neuroplasticity processes promoted by ongoing neurofeedback and to explore consequent changes in emotional learning and memory retrieval in humans at the behavioral and neural level.

Kate Collins
Graduate Student
Email: kate.collins@mssm.edu

I am interested in the neural mechanisms subsuming emotion regulation and dysregulation. Presently, I am studying the neurocircuits and neurotransmitter systems involved in human avoidance behavior.

Marianne Reddan
Lab Manager
Research Coordinator
Email: marianne.reddan@mssm.edu

As an undergraduate in the Lab of Elizabeth Phelps, I worked with Catherine Hartley to study how fear expression can be modulated by an experience of behavioral control. Here at Mount Sinai, I am eager to further my understanding of emotion and memory. In the future, I would like to investigate emotional learning in relation to empathy.

Chris Thompson
Research Coordinator
Email: christopher.thompson@mssm.edu

As an undergraduate in the lab of Dr. Uri Hasson at Princeton, I studied the neuroscience of interpersonal communication. Specifically, I investigated the neural responses that are shared among individuals across language translation. I am looking forward to expanding my horizons at Mount Sinai by studying memory and emotion.

Hsien Lee Lau
Research Coordinator
Email: h.lee.lau@mssm.edu

Previously, I studied the genetic and molecular mechanisms of enhancing/disrupting memory in C. elegans. I have extended my interest to humans. I am interested in how fear memories are formed and how to alter and disrupt existing maladaptive memories in healthy and clinical populations (anxiety disorders such as PTSD and specific phobias).