Division of Neuroscience and Behavior (DNB)

New Staff Members

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DNB is excited to welcome Dr. Jessica Mollick as a new Program Officer in the Behavioral Cognitive Neuroscience Branch. Jessica’s areas of scientific interest and expertise include the neural mechanisms of reward learning, emotion, and decision-making, including social decision-making, and how these mechanisms are influenced by substance use disorders. She also has an interest in neuroimaging methods and computational models of reward learning and decision-making. Jessica received her bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science from the University of California – Berkeley. She then completed a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Colorado – Boulder, where her research focused on computational neural network models of the basal ganglia, amygdala and dopamine system under the mentorship of Dr. Randall O’Reilly, and neuroimaging research on reward learning, including the neural mechanisms of conditioned inhibition.  Jessica completed postdoctoral training at Yale University in the Department of Psychiatry under the mentorship of Dr. Hedy Kober. Her work at Yale University focused on examining decision-making for wins and losses in individuals with cocaine use disorders, and meta-analysis of the neural mechanisms of prediction error. Her knowledge and expertise will be a great addition to DNB.  

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DNB welcomes Dr. Hoang Le, who recently joined the Division as a program Officer in the Chemistry, Pharmacology and Physiology (CPP) Branch. Dr. Le has an extensive background in organic and medicinal chemistry. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.S. degree in chemistry and received a Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from Cornell University. He then conducted his postdoctoral research in medicinal chemistry and enzymology under the guidance of Dr. Richard Silverman at Northwestern University. Before joining NIDA, he was an Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the Department of BioMolecular Sciences in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi. The research in his independent lab was inspired by natural products and aimed to discover and develop novel derivatives of natural products that are biologically relevant for the treatment of cancers, infectious diseases, and neurological disorders including substance use disorder. His recent work was focused on ligands of the kappa opioid receptor including ligands based on the natural product salvinorin A for treatment of pain and substance use disorder.  As a Program Officer at DNB, Dr. Le will initially focus on developing and expanding a portfolio of grants on the chemistry and pharmacology of opioid receptors with special emphasis on novel ligands and molecular probes derived from natural product scaffolds.

Upcoming Meetings and Symposiums DNB Staff are Chairing or Presenting

• Da-Yu Wu is chairing an symposium titled “Neuroinflammation in Substance Use Disorder and as a Target of Treatment” at the Society of Biological Psychiatry (SOBP) annual meeting, held April 27 - 29 at San Diego, CA.
• Tristan McClure-Begley and Susan Wright are chairing a session titled “Systems Neuroscience of Substance Use” at the American Psychiatric Association (APA) annual meeting, to be held May 20-24 in San Francisco, CA.
• Sunila Nair is chairing a session titled “Neurobiology of the interrelationship between circadian rhythms and substance use disorder” at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC (APSS) Sleep 2023 annual meeting, to be held June 3-7 in Indianapolis, IN.
• Jonathan Pollock is chairing a symposium titled “The Genetics and Epigenetics of Addiction” at the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) annual meeting, to be held on June 17 - 21 in Denver, CO.
• Susan Wright and Kiran Vemuri are chairing a symposium titled “Using Big Data to Understand the Role of the Gut Microbiome in Substance Use Disorders” at the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) annual meeting, to be held June 17 - 21 in Denver, CO.
• Sam Ananthan is chairing a symposium titled “Neuropeptides in Reward, Addiction, and Mental Health” at the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) annual meeting, to be held on June 17 - 21 in Denver, CO.