Rate My Professor Michael Michaelides

Michael Michaelides, Ph.D., serves as Senior Investigator and Section Chief of the Biobehavioral Imaging and Molecular Neuropsychopharmacology Section in the Neuroimaging Research Branch at the National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health. He earned his Ph.D. in Integrative Neuroscience from Stony Brook University in 2010. He completed postdoctoral training at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai from 2010 to 2015, working in the Departments of Pharmacology, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience. His laboratory integrates behavioral neuroscience, in vitro and in vivo pharmacology, molecular and synthetic biology, imaging, and neuromodulation techniques to investigate the molecular and brain circuit mechanisms underlying substance use and comorbid disorders, decipher drug mechanisms, and develop pharmaceuticals, molecular imaging agents, and neuromodulation technologies. Research emphases include biobehavioral imaging methods for systems- and cellular-level molecular neurobiology in freely moving animals, novel molecular imaging integrating neuromodulatory technologies and positron emission tomography, the role of essential metals in brain mechanisms relevant to substance abuse and addiction vulnerability, and interactions between peripheral and brain energy metabolic mechanisms in regulating reinforcement and related behaviors. Selected publications include work in Science (2017, 2019), Nature Communications (2019, 2024), Molecular Psychiatry (2020, 2023, 2024), Neuropsychopharmacology (2015, 2017), and the Journal of Clinical Investigation (2013).