We are pleased to announce our third year of Trainee Research Awards. Part of the Clinician Scientist Training Program (CSTP), these awards support the development of clinician scientists and provide funding and faculty support for trainees to participate in mentored research. The CSTP strives to support psychiatry and psychology trainees who are interested in research and assist in laying the foundation for a career as a clinician scientist. The program is directed by Jesse Fann, MD, MPH managed by Andie Uomoto, MPA, and supported by various philanthropic donations, department funds, and the Garvey Institute for Brain Health Solutions.

This year we received a record number of applications and awarded ten, one-year grants totaling over $180K to psychiatry residents, psychology interns, and fellows in various departmental training programs. Congratulations to all the recipients and a huge thank you to our grant reviewers and faculty members who are serving as mentors. 

2025 awardees and mentors:

• Matthew Becker, MD, PhD – Psychomotor function of Locus Coeruleus-Norepinephrine system during decision-making. Primary mentor:  John Neumaier, MD, PhD
• Robert Yuzen Chen, MD, PhD – Unraveling the genetics of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with large-language models. Primary mentor: Debby Tsuang, MD, MSc
• John D. Eun, MD, PhD – Improving risk-stratification of substance-induced psychosis: incorporating stakeholder perspectives and implementing a standardized assessment of risk factors. Primary mentors: Matt Iles-Shih, MD MPH
• Rachel Lockard, MD, MPH – Substance Use Disorder assessment tools in jails & prisons: a systematic review. Primary mentor: Brittany Blanchard, PhD
• Suelynn Ren, MD, PhD – From symptom relief to subtype identification: exploring patterns of cannabis use in PTSD. Primary mentor: Rebecca Hendrickson, MD, PhD
• Lynn Ren, MD – How fentanyl changes the brain: assessing mood, cognition, and withdrawal using animal models of addiction and brain-wide neural activity markers. Primary mentor: Garret Stuber, PhD
• Devon Sandel-Fernandez, PhD – Developing person-specific signatures of momentary risk for alcohol use. Primary mentor:  Kevin Hallgren, PhD
• Kseniya Shin, MD, PhD – Subtyping the neurobiology of PTSD through novel methods for the alpha- and beta-adrenergic autonomic nervous system components: A pilot study. Primary mentor: Rebecca Hendrickson, MD, PhD
• Margaret Wang, MD – Discovering how a task-shifted Care Manager workforce of community health workers can address geriatric mental health. Primary mentor: Patrick Raue, PhD
• Emily Warner, MD – Engagement patterns in pediatric integrated behavioral health: investigating service utilization and attrition among children with mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders. Primary mentor: Lawrence Wissow, MD