Atheir Abbas, MD, PhD earned his B.S. from Case Western Reserve University where he graduated magna cum laude. He entered the NIH-funded Medical Scientist Training Program at Case Western Reserve University, where he earned his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. His research interests focused on the role of serotonin receptors in cognitive processes, regulation of serotonin receptor function in the brain, and mechanisms of action of serotonergic drugs. His published work included a report on the molecular underpinnings of serotonergic-glutamatergic crosstalk and an article on a novel method for measuring post-transcriptional RNA editing of serotonin 5-HT2C receptors. He has received the National Institute of Mental Health Outstanding Resident Award, the APA Research Colloquium Award, and a NARSAD Young Investigator Grant. Dr. Abbas was previously a Leon Levy Fellow, Resident from 2011-2015, during his psychiatry residency training at Columbia University. He is currently a Schizophrenia Research Fellow and a Leon Levy Fellow, Research, at Columbia University, combining optogenetics and in vivo and in vitro electrophysiology to study the role of prefrontal interneurons, which are thought to be abnormal in schizophrenia, in supporting working memory. In addition to completing the studies he began as a Leon Levy Fellow, Resident, Dr. Abbas has continued to pursue his interests in modeling psychiatric disorders in animal models, collaborating on recently published studies exploring the role of the mediodorsal thalamus in working memory and reporting a novel female rodent depression paradigm.
