Lab Director
Michael T Treadway, PhD
Dr. Treadway is a clinical psychologist and neuroscientist focused on understanding the molecular and circuit-level mechanisms of psychiatric symptoms related to mood, anxiety, and decision-making. He received his PhD in clinical psychology from Vanderbilt University in 2012, and completed his clinical internship and post-doc at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. As Director of the Translational Research in Affective Disorders Laboratory (TReADLab) in the Department of Psychology at Emory University, Dr. Treadway’s research employs a variety of methods, including multimodal neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, MRS, and PET), behavioral paradigms, computational modeling, and clinical/personality assessment. A particular interest has been the assessment of reward motivation in psychiatric populations, for which Dr. Treadway has developed several laboratory tasks, including the Effort-Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfRT).
Email: mtreadway (at) emory (dot) edu Google Scholar Page CV
Assistant Director
Jessica A Cooper, PhD
Dr. Jessica Cooper is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University with research interests in motivation and decision making. She received her PhD from the University of Texas in 2016, where she primarily studied decision making and reinforcement learning in healthy aging. Her work in the TReAD lab focuses on characterizing neurobiological and computational mechanisms of motivation and effort-based decision making in both healthy and clinical populations. She employs a variety of methods, including computational modeling, behavioral paradigms, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Jess has been funded by a Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (NRSA) as well as K01 award from the National Institute of Mental Health.
Email: jessica (dot) cooper (at) emory (dot) edu
Post Doctoral Research Fellows
Jon Ryan, PhD
Dr. Ryan graduated from Florida State University with a Ph.D. in Neuroscience prior to joining the TReaDLab. His primary research interests lie in utilizing neuroimaging and neuromodulatory techniques to parse underlying mechanisms associated with depressive symptomatology. He hopes to work towards the development of novel clinical interventions for treatment-resistant depression.
Wenwu Sun, PhD
Dr. Wenwu Sun holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Georgia, specializing in brain connectivity analysis using neuroimaging and machine learning in procine model. His research focuses on integrating structural and functional brain data to improve understanding of neurodevelopment and brain injury recovery, particularly in porcine models. He aims to improve understanding of brain function and contribute to the development of clinical applications
Graduate Students
Shosuke Sosuki, MA
Shosuke graduated from UCLA with a B.S. in Neuroscience. Before joining the TReAD lab, he spent 3 years working as a research assistant at Yale University, where he gained experience running multi-session clinical trials with fMRI and EEG components in Substance Use Disorders. He is primarily interested in using ecological paradigms to examine the interface between motivation and action. He is an NRSA fellow and currently on internship at Dartmouth. Outside of lab, he enjoys cooking, bouldering, and meditating.
Summer Frandsen, MA
Summer graduated with a B.S. in Psychology and minors in Statistics and Ancient Near Eastern Studies from Brigham Young University and an M.A. in Psychology from Brandeis University. During this time, she also worked as a research assistant in multiple labs including the MEND2 Lab at the University of Utah and the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Summer is interested in harnessing multimodal and causal methods to understand the underlying transdiagnostic mechanisms of psychiatric disorders and their treatments. She has a particular interest in brain stimulation as both a treatment modality and a research tool. She is currently an NSF Graduate Research Fellow.
Sarah Etuk, MA
Sarah graduated with a BA in neuroscience from Pomona college, and then completed the NIH PREP program at Northwestern University. Her work in the lab has focused on examining the role of inflammation and immunometabolism in context of motivational impairments in mood disorders. She is also interested in the neurobiological consequences of early life adversity and their role in the development of mental illness. Her work is currently funded by an NIMH supplement award.
Marta Migo, MA
Marta graduated from New York University with a B.A. in Psychology, a B.F.A. in Drama, and minors in Computer Science and Philosophy. She then worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital for two years, in the Division of Neurotherapeutics. Currently, Marta is interested in using neuroimaging and computational psychiatry techniques to study free and perseverative thought patterns, such as worry and rumination, in mood and anxiety-related disorders.
Research Staff
Srinidhi Jayakumar, MA
Srinidhi Jayakumar graduated with a B.Sc. in Psychology from Virginia Tech in 2021, and a M.A. in Psychology from Stony Brook University. She is primarily interested in identifying psychophysiological predictors for the development and trajectory of depression and suicidality in adolescents and young adults employing a multi-method approach (e.g., incorporation of fMRI, EEG, and neuroimmunology). She aspires to complete a PhD in Clinical Psychology in the near future.
Tatiana Pillsburry, BA
Tatiana graduated from New College Florida with a degree in Neuroscience.
Oluwagbohunmi Aje, MA
Oluwagbohunmi graduated from Stony Brook University with an MA in Psychology before joining the TReaDLab. His primary interest lies in using neurobiological and neurocomputational techniques to understand the association between affective deficits and disinhibited behaviors across various psychopathologies.
Jessica Kubert, BA
Jessica Kubert graduated from Emory University where she majored in psychology.
Samantha Betters, MS
Samantha (“Sammie”) graduated with a degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Florida and an MS in healthcare engineering from Johns Hopkins University
Caroline Conway, BA
Caroline Conway graduated from Dartmouth College in 2024 with a B.A. in Cognitive Science and minors in Psychology and Hispanic Studies. She is interested in interventions for treatment-resistant depression, with a particular focus on neuromodulation and methods that are non-invasive and accessible. She is also passionate about leveraging neuroimaging to identify biomarkers of major depressive disorder and other psychiatric conditions.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Coco Wu Nadia Piecyk Amelia Mo Leo Ghiloni
Kira Young Grace Cheng Aubree Goff
Graduate Student Alumni
Andrew Teer, PhD
Dr. Teer graduated from Yale University with a BA in Psychology in 2010, and graduated from Emory University with a PhD in Clinical Psychology in 2020 after completing his internship at Grady Hospital. Drew is interested in the use of imaging both to shape existing treatments and to develop new therapies for internalizing disorders like depression and PTSD. He is currently completing his post-doctoral fellowship at Emory University.
Amanda Arulpragasam, PhD
Dr. Arulpragasam graduated from Duke University with a B.S. in Neuroscience and B.A. in Linguistics in 2012, and graduated from Emory University with a PhD in Clinical Psychology in 2021 after completing her internship at Dartmouth. Amanda is interested in using neuromodulatory techniques, including TMS and focused ultrasound to understand the role neural circuits play in the etiology and maintenance of mental illness. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Brown University.
Shabnam Hossein, PhD
Dr. Hossein graduated from University of Houston with a Ph.D. in Physics, after which she spent one year working as a volunteer research assistant at the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania. Her primary research interests lie in understanding the underlying cognitive mechanisms that maintain psychopathological symptoms especially present in anxiety and mood disorders. She is also interested in applying methods of network science, which has been shown to be successful in many other disciplines, to study psychopathology.
Victoria Lawlor, PhD
Victoria graduated from Northeastern University with a B.S. in Psychology and minor in Computer Science. Before joining the TReAD lab, she worked as a student intern and co-op research assistant at McLean Hospital, where she used EEG and computational modeling to investigate learning and memory processes in adults with depression. She completed her PhD in clinical psychology at Emory in 2024 with a focus on the application of natural language processing to the study of psychotherapy. She is currently completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Anxiety Associates of Atlanta.
Post Doctoral Staff Alumni
Boris Botzanowski, PhD
Dr. Botzanowski received his PhD in neuroscience under the supervision of Dr. Adam Williamson and Dr. Viktor Jirsa from the University of Aix-Marseille. During his PhD, he investigated and developed some possible applications of temporal interference, an emerging neuromodulation technique for non-invasive deep-brain stimulation.
Research Staff Alumni
Brittany DeVries
Emma Hahn
Makiah Nuutinen
Nadia Irfan
Asim Lal
Chelsea Leonard
Danielle Harrison
Melissa Letzler
Dan Cole
Shiyin Liu
Undergraduate Research Assistant Alumni
Samuel Han
Jessica Kubert
Nimra Ahad
Leslie Mora
Jeffrey Yang
Maheen Nazarally
Michael Shi
Carson Bohl
Maryam Reyman
Mallory Warman
Isha Kumar
Emily Seigel
Kristi Kwok
Andrew Wei
Emily Mathis
Ila Gautham
Mihir Ghetiya
Annabel Lu
Heejae (Elina) Choi
William Yun
Theresa Benson
Anneka Soenstrom
Brian Shim
Shermin Punjwani
Nadia Irfan
Mark Gorman
Meg Airely
Lydia Zhang
Emma Levy
Wenqi Ge