MiNDS scholars benefit from the diverse and expert backgrounds of our 3 program faculty, who work closely and intentionally with our students to ensure meaningful skill growth. With their unique research focuses and their historic successes with cultivating young researches, Dr. Briand, Dr. Wimmer, and Dr. Olson prepare our scholars for success in the field.
Dr. Lisa Briand began her neuroscience career as an undergraduate at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine working under the direction of Dr. John Kelsey. She received her doctorate in Neuroscience from the University of Michigan, where she studied the ability of cocaine abuse to lead to deficits in cognitive function with Dr. Terry Robinson. She then went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in the laboratories of Dr. Julie Blendy and Dr. Chris Pierce studying the circuitry and physiological mechanisms underlying reinstatement of cocaine seeking. Since opening the BNL at Temple University in 2014, Dr. Briand has been studying the role of glutamate in vulnerability to substance use and relapse as well as mechanisms underlying the ability of stress to influence drug taking and seeking. Her current research program extends these findings to examine the electrophysiological mechanisms underlying drug relapse. Specifically, her research program examines the role of AMPA receptor trafficking in the ability of cues and stress to elicit relapse to cocaine seeking. Her research is currently funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
Dr. Mat Wimmer
The once controversial idea that parental experiences, such as stress or diet, can shape the physiology and behavior of their offspring via epigenetic mechanisms has become an active area of research. Dr. Mathieu Wimmer studies the influence of drug abuse in fathers (sires) on future generations. His research program combines animal models of drug addiction and memory formation with molecular biology techniques to investigate the impact of paternal drug-taking on drug-related behaviors and memory formation in progeny. Dr. Wimmer is also interested in epigenetic remodeling events in the brain that underlie these inherited changes in behavior. Dr. Wimmer received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania under the mentorship of Dr. Ted Abel. His postdoctoral training under the guidance of Dr. Chris Pierce at Penn focused on the transgenerational epigenetics of cocaine addiction. Dr. Wimmer’s research is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Dr. Ingrid Olson
Dr. Olson received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She earned her PhD at Yale University. She worked first with Tom Carew, then Marvin Chun and Truett Allison in the Department of Psychology. Professor Olson’s dissertation was on a type of statistical learning called “contextual cueing.” While at Yale, she also began working with Yuhong Jiang to study visual working memory. Dr. Olson’s research interests all focus on the human brain and cognition. She is fundamentally interested in episodic memory and how it changes across the lifespan. The things that alter memory – experience in all its many forms, including life experiences that lead to accelerated cognitive aging, is of special interest. She also studies subcortical circuitry and how the ancient parts of our brain shape our social and emotional lives. She uses an assortment of behavioral and brain imaging techniques to address these questions. Current projects in 2024 include cerebellar-VTA circuitry in mood and psychosis, air pollution and neurocognitive aging, and how episodic memory changes in childhood. Dr. Olson