Faculty
Research Faculty—Neuroscience Program
Neuroscience Program
- Stephen Glatt, PhD
Associate ProfessorResearch Interests:Dr. Glatt is Director of the Psychiatric Genetic Epidemiology & Neurobiology Laboratory (PsychGENe Lab). The mission of the PsychGENe Lab is to develop and apply methods for finding the causes of mental health and mental illness. The vision of the lab is that we will discover those causes and use that information to design interventions that treat or prevent these disorders, or foster resilience to them. We are running numerous research projects aimed at finding the genes and environmental risk factors for a wide variety of disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and substance abuse disorders, among others. Our pipeline seeks to identify “risk genes” for these disorders by studying affected individuals and families and then to reveal how such genes alter brain biology leading to a vulnerability to mental illness.
- Brian Howell, PhD
Associate ProfessorResearch Interests:The signal transduction events that regulate the functional organization of neurons in the brain, and the phenotypes caused by defects in the genes that encode these signaling molecules.
- Huaiyu Hu, PhD
ProfessorResearch Interests:Molecular studies of brain malformations.
- Barry Knox, PhD
ProfessorResearch Interests:Visual transduction, Gene Expression, Membrane proteins
- Chunyu Liu, PhD
ProfessorResearch Interests:Dr. Liu's major research focuses on identifying the molecular mechanisms of major psychiatric diseases, particularly bipolar disorder and schizophrenia using comprehensive approaches including genetics, bioinformatics, genomics, cellular and animal models.
- Russell Matthews, PhD
Associate ProfessorResearch Interests:Role of glycoproteins in oncogenesis and brain development
- Frank Middleton, PhD
Associate ProfessorResearch Interests:- Genetic, epigenetic, and neuroanatomical basis of neurological and psychiatric disorders
- Basal ganglia and cerebellar circuitry in normal and disease states
- Neural-immune and gut-brain interactions
- Machine learning approaches for biomarker discovery
- Next generation sequencing for multiomic data analysis (genome, transcriptome, microbiome, methylome)
- Eric Olson, PhD
Associate ProfessorResearch Interests:Cellular and molecular mechanisms of cerebral cortex development.
Lissencephaly / neuronal migration disorders; Dendritogenesis and early cortical wiring; Reelin-Dab1 signaling; Adaptor proteins; Fetal Alcohol Syndrome; Intellectual disability
- Daniel Tso, PhD
Associate ProfessorResearch Interests:Neuronal mechanisms of visual perception, studied through physiological, anatomical and functional imaging techniques.
- Mary Lou Vallano, PhD
ProfessorResearch Interests:Neuronal survival and development.
- Mariano Viapiano, PhD
Associate ProfessorResearch Interests:Brain cancer therapies; tumor microenvironment; tumor invasion; extracellular matrix; nano-therapeutics; immunotherapies
- Andrea Viczian, PhD
Assistant ProfessorResearch Interests:Mammalian retinal stem cells formation; molecular mechanism of retinal cell fate decisions; using cell replacement therapy to heal the blinded eye.
- Cynthia Weickert, PhD
ProfessorResearch Interests:I research the Neurobiology of Mental Illness with a focus on Schizophrenia. My research also involves projects on Primate Neurogenesis, Neuroinflammation, and Molecular Human Brain Development.
- Li-Ru Zhao, PhD
ProfessorResearch Interests:Brain plasticity; molecular, cellular and functional mechanisms of brain repair in stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, CADASIL, and traumatic brain injury; live brain imaging; stem cell biology.
- Sijun Zhu, MD, PhD
Associate ProfessorResearch Interests:Genetic mechanisms of Drosophila neural stem cell self-renewal and specification.
- Michael Zuber, PhD
Associate ProfessorResearch Interests:The molecular basis of retinal stem cell formation; regulating retinal stem/progenitor cell proliferation; using retinal stem/progenitor cells to heal the injured or degenerating retina.
More About Upstate Research and Faculty
David Amberg, PhD
Vice President for Research
Research Administration Organization

Jennifer A. Rudes, Director, Sponsored Programs Pre-Award
Office of Sponsored Programs
Holly Chanatry, MS
Director
Strategic Research Initiatives
Research Development

Ruth S. Weinstock, MD, PhD
Division Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Clinical Research Unit
Robert H. Quinn, DVM, PhD
Interim Associate Vice President for Research Integrity
Research Integrity Office
Robin Cerro
QAIP Coordinator
Research Compliance: IRB, IBC & QAIP

Marti Benedict
Chief Compliance Officer for Research
Research Compliance: IRB, IBC & QAIP

Steven Ziemba
Administrative Director
Center for Research & Evaluation (CRE)

Gina McMahon
Director, Post-Award Services
Scott Macfarlane
Director, Office of Technology Transfer
Office of Technology Transfer
