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Intern - Computational Psychiatry Group

Alena - Digital Therapeutics

• Advisors: Quentin Huys, MD, PhD, and Mona Garvert, PhD
• Performed model-agnostic behavioral analysis of social interactions between artificial agents and participants with social anxiety
• Developed a reversal learning paradigm to investigate responsiveness to social learning
• Constructed customized computational models to extract learning parameters from task behaviors and related them to clinical questionnaires
• Gained experience in mobile and desktop app development and game design

Graduate Student at the Center for Computational Psychiatry

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

My PhD thesis was focused on investigating the latent behavioral and neurobiological patterns underlying decision-making and craving across addictive disorders using computational psychiatry approaches.

• Advisors: Xiaosi Gu, PhD, and Daniela Schiller, PhD
• Utilized linear and non-linear machine learning to classify chronic users of cannabis, and graph theoretical methods to investigate neural patterns underlying chronic cannabis use
• Conceived and implemented novel computational models to investigate decision-making and craving in populations with addiction
• Revised and improved lab-standard maximum likelihood models of reinforcement learning to utilize Bayesian parameter estimation
• Implemented dynamical systems models to probe latent states underlying verbal free recall of traumatic memories in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder
• Collected behavioral data using online platforms such as Prolific, as well as neural data such as functional MRI and intracranial EEG

Lab Manager/Research Assistant at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience

Rutgers University - Newark

• Advisor: Michael W. Cole, PhD
• Developed tasks designed to determine of mechanisms underlying rapid instructed task learning (RITL)
• Led a project to identify and decode prototypical mental states, their dynamics, and characteristic graph theoretical measures during resting state using community detection, clustering algorithms, and other machine learning methods
• Collected functional MRI/EEG/neurophysiological data for three protocols from cohorts of healthy college-aged young adults and aging populations

Research Assistant at the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine

Rutgers University - New Brunswick

• Advisor: Gaetano Montelione, PhD
• Engineered a software platform for the identification of novel targets for NMR structure determination using BLAST/HMMER similarity scores in conjunction with dimensionality reduction algorithms to embed protein sets into 2D/3D visualization space
• Developed a novel method for sequence-based structure determination and surface feature characterization based on the Rosetta platform
• Collected protein NMR data through an end-to-end protein imaging pipeline, including protein design, production, purification, and NMR data acquisition

Emergency Medical Technician

Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad

PhD

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

MD

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

BA

Rutgers University - New Brunswick

Major: Cell Biology + Neuroscience, Minor: Computer Science + Philosophy

T32 Training Program in Substance Use Disorders

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Departmental Highest Honors, Cell Biology and Neuroscience

Rutgers University - New Brunswick

Bachelor of Arts Magna Cum Laude

Rutgers University - New Brunswick

Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society

Rutgers University - New Brunswick

CABM Undergraduate Program Scholar

Rutgers University - New Brunswick

Presidential Scholarship (Full Tuition)

Rutgers University - New Brunswick

National Merit Scholar

National Merit Scholarship Corporation