Current Lab Members
Current Lab Members
Brian G Dias
March 2023 - Associate Professor with Tenure, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology - USC Keck School of Medicine & Children's Hospital Los Angeles
March 2020 - Fellow - CIFAR Child & Brain Development Program
Previous appointments:
Sep 2020 - Feb 2023 Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology - USC Keck School of Medicine & Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Sep 2015 - Aug 2020 Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Division of Behavioral Neuroscience and Psychiatric Disorders - Emory University School of Medicine & Yerkes National Primate Research Center
Education:
Ph.D. (UT-Austin, 2008)
M.Sc. (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India, 2003)
B.Sc. (St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, India, 2000)
Short Bio:
Dr. Dias is a South Asian-American Associate Professor with Tenure in the Department of Pediatrics at the USC Keck School of Medicine and directs a research laboratory at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). Dr. Dias and his team study how legacies of stress echo across generations. From their discoveries, they aim to inform therapeutic and policy interventions to mitigate multi-generational legacies of stress. A recipient of a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar Award from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Dr. Dias is a Fellow in CIFAR’s Child & Brain Development Program. Committed to educating the next generations of scientists to create diverse, equitable and inclusive communities, Dr. Dias has been awarded an HHMI Gilliam Fellowship in partnership with one of his graduate students and mentors high-schoolers through the Latinx & African American High School Internship Program (LA-HIP) at CHLA. Sought after as a thought leader and gifted science communicator, Dr. Dias recently spoke about legacies of trauma on stage (TEDx), radio (e.g. NPR), podcasts (e.g. Mind & Life), and TV (Your Fantastic Mind - PBS). Complementing his research, Dr. Dias is deeply invested in knowledge mobilization. He has taught Neuroscience to Tibetan Buddhist monastics through the Emory Tibet Science Initiative (e.g. conversation with The Dalai Lama, paper co-authored with a Tibetan Buddhist monastic) and consults on the N.E.A.R. (Neurobiology, Epigenetics, Adversity, Resilience) education curriculum for FamilyWise Services - a Minnesota-based organization that aims to strengthen families by promoting well-being of children.
Long Bio:
Dr. Dias grew up in India and received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. Over the years, his research has investigated the neurobiology underlying stress, depression, social behavior and fear, in rats, lizards, birds, fruit flies, and mice. While most of his current work uses mice, generous collaborators have enabled Dr. Dias and his team to begin investigating the biological basis of behavioral states and neuropsychiatric disorders, in non-human primates, and humans.
Dr. Dias’ research seeks to understand how mammalian neurobiology, physiology and reproductive biology is impacted by stress or trauma, and how parental legacies of stress or trauma influence offspring. Armed with this understanding, Dr. Dias and his team aim to devise therapeutic interventions to ameliorate the effects of stress or trauma in both, ancestral and descendant populations. Toward this goal, Dr. Dias uses molecular, cellular, genetic, epigenetic, physiological, and behavioral approaches to investigate how the biology of an organism and its responsiveness to stress or trauma is influenced by micro- (genome, epigenome and hormones), and macro-environments (ancestral, in utero and post-natal experiences). Among other outlets, Dr. Dias’ work has been featured in Nature, on the BBC, in a list of the 10 Most Important Discoveries of 2014 published by La Recherche Magazine. Most recently, Dr. Dias was quoted in articles about the legacy of trauma (BBC)and the neurobiology of family separation (BrainFacts), and gave a TEDx talk on Halting Legacies of Trauma (TEDx).
In 2017, Dr. Dias was awarded a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar Award (competitive awards given to exceptional early career investigators from around the world by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), and in 2020 he was named a
Fellow in CIFAR’s Child & Brain Development Program. In 2019, Dr. Dias was selected to be part of the Young Leader network at the Science & Technology in Society Forum in Kyoto, Japan (an invitation-only forum that includes world leaders and diplomats discussing how science and technology can address contemporary roadblocks to human progress).
In addition to his research, Dr. Dias is interested in scientific innovation and education. This interest has seen Dr. Dias participate in the 2016 Sci-Foo Camp – an invitation-only ideas festival that is often described as a mini-Woodstock of ideas, held at Google, and co-organized by Google, O’Reilly Media, Nature and Digital Science. Dr. Dias is a faculty member of the Emory Tibet Science Initiative, teaches Neuroscience to Tibetan Buddhist monastics, and participated on a panel discussing “Consciousness” with scholars that included the Dalai Lama (video link).
Select Awards:
2023
- HHMI Gilliam Fellowship. In partnership with graduate student Layla Vasquez. The goals of the Gilliam program are to ensure that students from groups historically excluded from and underrepresented in science are prepared to assume leadership roles in science and science education.
- Selected as a Scialog Fellow: Molecular Basis of Cognition Program. An initiative to advance fundamental understanding of how memory, thought, perception and cognition work in brains at the molecular and systems level. Sponsored by Research Corporation for Science Advancement, Frederick Gardner Cottrell Foundation, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Kavli Foundation, Walder Foundation.
- Selected to be part of the Young Leader network at the Science & Technology in Society Forum in Kyoto, Japan (an invitation-only forum that includes world leaders and diplomats discussing how science and technology can address contemporary roadblocks to human progress)
- CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar
- FAPESP-SPRINT Award (São Paolo Researchers in International Collaboration) (a collaboration with Dr. Newton Canteras at University of São Paolo)
- National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow
- Alexander von Humboldt Fellow
- Emory University Research Council Award
- Yerkes Pilot Project Award
- Participant at 2016 Sci-Foo Camp – an invitation-only ideas festival co-organized by Google, O’Reilly Media, Nature and Digital Science often described as a mini-Woodstock of ideas.
Google Scholar
William Taylor
Graduate Student - USC Neuroscience Graduate Program (transferred from Emory Neuroscience Program) (2020- )
Will's CV
Laura Korbokova
Graduate Student - USC Neuroscience Graduate Program (2021- )
Former Lab Members (position, program, time in lab)
Emory
1. Aastha KC {Student Scholar, Institute on Neuroscience (ION) Participant, June-August 2016}
2. Salma Ferdous {Rotating Graduate Scholar, Emory Genetics & Molecular Biology Program, Dec 2015-Feb 2016}
3. Simone Alicia Campbell {Rotating Graduate Scholar, Emory Neuroscience Program, Sep-Dec 2016}
4. Indiana Schnicer {Student Scholar, Institute on Neuroscience (ION) Participant, June-August 2017}
5. Sarah Strausser {Undergraduate Research Scholar, August 2016-May 2017}
6. Justin Baman {Undergraduate Research Scholar, September 2015-May 2017}
7. Nandini Doshi {Undergraduate Research Scholar, Emory SURE Fellow, Honor's Thesis, September 2015-May 2017}
8. Audrey Easton {Undergraduate Research Scholar, 2016 Beckman Program Scholar in Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience, September 2015-May 2017}
9. Meghan Wynne {Rotating Graduate Scholar, Emory Neuroscience Program, July-Aug 2017}
10. Meghna Ravi {Rotating Graduate Scholar, Emory Neuroscience Program, Feb-May 2018}
11. Hannah Linsenbaum {Undergraduate Research Scholar, September 2015-April 2018}
12. Preethi Reddi {Undergraduate Research Scholar, August 2017-April 2018}
13. Kristie Garza { Graduate Scholar, Emory Neuroscience Program, June 2017-May 2018}
14. Natalia Brody {Undergraduate Research Scholar, Jan 2016-May 2018}
15. Rachel Gluck {Discovery Project Medical Student Researcher, July 2018-Dec 2018}
16. Hadj Aoued {Research Specialist, Sep 2015-May 2019}
17. Soma Sannigrahi {Senior Research Specialist, Sep 2015-May 2019}
18. Archana Venkataraman {Graduate Scholar, Emory Neuroscience Program, Sep 2015-May 2020, Now postdoc with Dr. Holly Ingraham at UCSF}
19. Maria Dhinojwala {Undergraduate Research Scholar, August 2019-May 2020}
20. Diana Ghebrezadik {Undergraduate Research Scholar, August 2019-May 2020}
21. Sarah Hunter {Undergraduate Research Scholar, August 2017-May 2020}
22. Barry Imhoff {Senior Research Specialist, Nov 2019-May 2020}
23. Zakia Sultana Sathi {Senior Research Specialist, Sep 2019-May 2020}
CHLA/USC
24. Xochitl Morales {High School Student Scholar from California Academy of Mathematics and Science, LA-HIP Program, Summer 2021, now undergrad Columbia University}
25. Lama Ahmed {High School Student Scholar from Thomas Jefferson High School, LA-HIP Program, Summer 2021, now undergrad at UCLA}
26. Amerie Samuels {High School Student Scholar, LA-HIP Program, Summer 2022, now undergrad at UCLA}
27. Bella Zapata {High School Student Scholar, LA-HIP Program, Summer 2022, now undergrad at Notre Dame}
28. Amelia Briones {High School Student Scholar, LA-HIP Program, Summer 2022, now undergrad at Emory University}
29. Abraham Metzger {High School Student Scholar, LA-HIP Program, Summer 2022, now undergrad at UCLA}
30. Roua Ahmed {High School Student Scholar, LA-HIP Program, Summer 2023}
31. Emily Morales {High School Student Scholar, LA-HIP Program, Summer 2023}
32. Isabelle Young {Rotating Graduate Scholar, USC Neuroscience Program, Nov 2023-Jan 2024}
