Faculty
Professor, Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Mathew is the director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program. He is also vice chair for research in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a staff physician at the Michael E. Debakey VA Medical Center. His areas of expertise include neuropsychopharmacology and translational research in treatment-resistant depression, anxiety and PTSD.
Professor, Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Alan Swann does clinical and translational research focusing on behavior, neurophysiology, and biomarkers related to action control and behavioral sensitization. The goal of this work is to develop new diagnostic measures and drug therapies for refractory bipolar disorders, suicidal behavior, alcoholism, and PTSD.
Professor, Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Family and Community Medicine
Dr. Asim Shah is the chief of psychiatry at Harris Health and Ben Taub Hospital and executive vice chair for the Menninger Department of Psychiatry. His interests include treatment resistant depression, mood disorders, psychosis and behavior health integration. He oversees several Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials at Harris Health.
Assistant Professor, Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Marijin Lijffijt investigates neuropharmacological mechanisms of, and novel treatments targets for difficult-to-treat psychiatric and neurological disorders, including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, severe suicidality, Gulf War Illness, and misophonia.
Assistant Professor, Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Brittany O’Brien is interested in the development of novel and innovative therapies for patients with chronic, treatment-resistant anxiety, and mood disorders. Her current research projects include a multi-site collaboration with private community clinics to explore real-world outcomes and patient-specific factors that influence ketamine treatment response.
Assistant Professor, Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Shirali Patel is a research psychiatrist for several clinical trials in Major Depressive Disorder and Treatment-resistant depression. In addition, she oversees the rTMS treatment program at the Baylor Psychiatry Clinic.
Associate Professor, Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Ali Ashgar-Ali is the Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship director who is a co-investigator on a randomized trial comparing ketamine and ECT. He has an educational grant through the Veterans Health Administration Office of Rural Affairs for the development of suicide assessment and management training.
Affiliated Faculty
Associate Professor
Dr. Ramiro Salas uses functional brain imaging to study the neuronal circuits that are involved in the processing of reward and disappointment, and how these circuits are changed in addiction, depression, and other conditions. His lab is also developing gene expression data-mining techniques to obtain anatomical hypotheses of disease from genetic screenings.
Voluntary Faculty, BCM Department of Anesthesiology
In addition to her voluntary faculty appointment, Dr. Allison Wells is a partner at Northwest Anesthesiology and Pain and medical director of Lone Star Infusion. Her research interests include ketamine for depression, anxiety, and PTSD and the combination of holistic and anesthetic treatment approaches for mood disorders.
Associate Professor
Dr. Chadi Abdallah has expertise in antidepressant clinical trials, translational clinical neuroscience, multimodal neuroimaging, and the development of rapid-acting antidepressants for the treatment of depression, PTSD, and other stress-related psychiatric disorders. His research program focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying trauma, depression, and chronic stress, with emphasis on the role of synaptic connectivity and neuroenergetics.
Post Doctoral Fellows, Staff and Trainees
Research Operations Lead and Program Manager
In addition to being the program manager, Tabish Iqbal is an academic M.D. and ECFMG-certified international medical graduate. He oversees the regulatory, clinical, and financial components of the program. He is particularly interested in NMDA receptor antagonists for treatment of depression. His objective as a scientist/researcher is to understand the statistical and practical significance implications to different treatment responses.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Nicholas Murphy is interested in neuromodulation and translational neurophysiological biomarkers of mood disorders. His current research projects include an NIH funded study of prefrontal cortical excitability and its relationship to rTMS response in patients with depression.
Senior Research Coordinator
Sidra Iqbal is responsible for coordinating the lab’s Ketamine and ECT trials.
Research Coordinator II
Bylinda Vo-Le is responsible for coordinating the lab’s Gulf War Illness and American Foundation Suicide Prevention projects.
Research Coordinator I
Divya Gupta is responsible for coordinating the R33 Xen1101, Sage and Merck projects.
Research Coordinator I
Dania Amarneh is responsible for coordinating the R33 Xen1101, Sage, and Merck projects.
