Neuroscience Graduate Program Focus on Mentoring

Dr. Noelle Anastasio received her bachelor’s degree in biology from The University of Texas at Austin. She then joined the Pharmacology and Toxicology Graduate Program at the UTMB Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) and earned her PhD degree under the mentorship of Dr. Kenneth Johnson. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the UTMB Center for Addiction Research under the direction of Dr. Kathryn Cunningham, Dr. Anastasio joined the UTMB Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology faculty in 2014. She is currently a tenure-track assistant professor and also serves as the Director of the Cellular and Molecular Signaling Core in the Center for Addiction Research.

Dr. Anastasio’s research focuses on the neurobiology of the patterns of individual differences in impulsivity and decision-making with respect to the development and maintenance of chronic health maladies associated with reward imbalance. Her work investigates neuronal serotonin and glutamate systems in relation to impulsivity and if rebalancing these systems may ultimately support behavioral recovery in disorders marked by impulsivity concomitant with an imbalance in the reward system and reactivity to reward conditioned cues (e.g., addiction, binge eating disorder, and obesity). Her research has the potential to lead to tailored treatments and/or diagnoses for individuals, along with new insights into how these systems can affect development or treatment. Her research is funded through multiple grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the Peter F. McManus Charitable Trust Foundation. Her work has been published in 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and other publications, and she has served as a reviewer for over 20 scientific journals.

Since joining the UTMB faculty, Dr. Anastasio has been actively engaged with teaching, mentoring, and administration. She is a member of the Pharmacology and Toxicology, Neuroscience, and Human Pathophysiology and Translational Medicine graduate programs, and has served as a facilitator in the School of Medicine and as a lecturer and course director for multiple courses in the GSBS on addiction, impulsivity, and other topics. In the past five years, she has directly supervised seven postdoctoral fellows, graduate or undergraduate students and has served as the chair or member of nine thesis or dissertation supervisory committees. She is actively involved in interviewing and recruitment efforts for various graduate programs and was appointed the Pharmacology and Toxicology Student Organization Faculty Advisor. She is a member of multiple institutional, national and international committees including the UTMB Faculty Senate, the International Society for Research on Impulsivity, and the International Society for Serotonin Research.

Dr. Thomas Green received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Kentucky under Dr. Michael Bardo and completed his postdoctoral training at UT Southwestern Medical Center with Dr. Eric Nestler, both world-renowned scientists in the field of addiction. He was recruited to UTMB in 2009 and is currently an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology. He serves as an associate member of the Pharmacology & Toxicology, Neuroscience, and Human Pathophysiology & Translational Medicine graduate programs and is a member of the Center for Addiction Research and the Palermo-UTMB Joint PhD Program faculty. He also co-founded the Mental Health Research Group at UTMB.

Dr. Green’s research program focuses on complex psychiatric conditions, such as addiction, depression, and anxiety, that are a function of interactions between genes and the environment. His current research using preclinical animal models focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying protective addiction and depression phenotypes that could be of therapeutic value for these disorders. Dr. Green’s research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 2010, with multiple R01 and R03 grants. He has published 62 peer-reviewed journal articles and has served as a reviewer for over 25 scientific journals.

Dr. Green is also a dedicated educator in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) and the School of Medicine. Since joining UTMB, he has been an active course director, lecturer, and mentor, particularly in the Pharmacology & Toxicology and Neuroscience graduate programs. He has mentored multiple graduate students and medical students and participates as a summer undergraduate mentor each year. His doctoral trainees have a successful track record of publishing numerous impactful papers, being supported by competitive NIH-funded grants, and receiving competitive awards, including traineeships, fellowships, and travel awards. His graduates have earned noteworthy postdoctoral and faculty positions at such institutions as the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and the University of North Carolina Medical School. During his tenure, Dr. Green has made multiple contributions to curriculum development in the GSBS. He has created several courses for the Pharmacology & Toxicology, Neuroscience, and Postdoctoral Programs. He also co-developed the curriculum for the Pharmacology & Toxicology Master of Science degree program that was launched in 2019. He is the associate director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program and also mentors its students in the organization of the Neuroscience Graduate Program student symposium, now in its fifth year and an important component of the program.

Dr. Rakez Kayed completed his PhD degree in organic and medicinal chemistry from the University of Tübingen, Germany, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in Alzheimer’s and protein misfolding diseases from the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Kayed joined UTMB in 2007 as an assistant professor in the Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience and Cell Biology. Dr. Kayed is currently a tenured professor in the Departments of Neurology and Neuroscience, Cell Biology, and Anatomy. He is also a member of the George & Cynthia Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, a member of the Sealy Center for Vaccine Development, and a Senior Fellow of the Sealy Center on Aging.

Dr. Kayed’s research focuses on the mechanisms of protein misfolding and aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Kayed’s contributions have significantly advanced the understanding of the mechanisms of neurodegenerative pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurological disorders. His laboratory has made important discoveries for the role of oligomers in synaptic dysfunction, cell death and disease progression and has developed novel amyloid-ß, α-synuclein and tau oligomer-specific antibodies. His research is funded by multiple grants from funding agencies such as the National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and Texas Alzheimer’s Research & Care Consortium, among others. His research has been published in over 140 peer-reviewed articles and has been cited more than 28,000 times. He has served as a reviewer for NIH study sections and more than 20 national and international funding agencies and foundations. He has also participated as a reviewer for more than 50 scientific journals including Nature, Science, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Molecular Psychiatry.

In addition to his outstanding research accomplishments, Dr. Kayed goes above and beyond in the teaching and mentoring of trainees. He is dedicated to providing career guidance for students and encouraging them to gain professional skills that are vital to their long-term success. He has mentored 20 postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, as well as 60 medical students, rotation students, exchange students, and high school and undergraduate students. His trainees have published peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals and have received many local, national, and international competitive fellowships, scholarships, and awards. Dr. Kayed is actively involved in academic administration and, since 2014, he has served as the director for the Neurobiology of Disease PhD track and a member of the Graduate School Executive Committee. He also serves as the chair of the Neuroscience Graduate Program (NGP) curriculum committee, which is responsible for revising and improving courses. Additionally, he directs and facilitates multiple courses for graduate and medical students.

The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Fernanda Laezza, Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, to the Mary and J. Palmer Saunders Professorship for Excellence in Teaching for a period of two years.

Dr. Laezza received her MD from the University of Turin, Italy, and her PhD in neuroscience from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She completed post-graduate training at Washington University in St. Louis. In 2008, Dr. Laezza joined the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2015. In addition to her faculty appointment, Dr. Laezza serves in a variety of roles, including as a fellow in the UTMB Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, a member of the UTMB Center in Environmental Toxicology, a full member of the UTMB Academy of Research Mentors, and director of the UTMB Pharmacology and Toxicology Graduate Program. She is also the co-founder and Chair of the Gulf Coast Consortia Mental Health Research Cluster and a full member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Dr. Agenor Limon completed his master’s and PhD degrees in physiological sciences at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla in Puebla, México. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), he served as an assistant project scientist at UCI and a lecturer at both UCI and California State University, Los Angeles. Dr. Limon joined UTMB in 2018 and is a tenure-track assistant professor in the George and Cynthia Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in the Department of Neurology. He is a faculty member in the Neuroscience Graduate Program and the international joint PhD program between UTMB and the University of Palermo.

His research has been funded by multiple entities such as the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Amon G. Carter Foundation. He is currently the principal investigator or co-investigator on two R01 and U24 grants, including a new five-year R01 from the National Institute on Aging. He has published nearly 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and has presented his work at over 50 symposia and conferences. He has served as a reviewer or editor for multiple scientific journals and as a grant reviewer for numerous national and international scientific agencies, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Council on Science and Technology (CONACYT) in Mexico, and the National Agency for Evaluation and Prospective (ANEP) in Spain.

Since joining UTMB, Dr. Limon has mentored several students, including a PhD student from the University of Palermo and an international master’s student from the Università degli Studi di Trieste, Italy, who has gone on to continue his graduate studies at the Max Planck Institute of Experiemental Medicine, Göttingen/University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany. Additionally, each year he has mentored a student in the Neuroscience Summer Undergraduate Research Program (NSURP). Dr. Limon’s mentoring ability is reflected in the productivity and outcomes of his students. Since 2018, his UTMB students have published seven papers, including four first author publications. After completing their training in his lab, Dr. Limon’s students have gone on to continue their education at other prestigious institutions in PhD, medical, or postdoctoral programs.

Dr. Maria-Adelaide Micci received her doctorate in biological sciences from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” in Rome, Italy, and her Ph.D. in cell biology through the UTMB Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS). She completed postdoctoral appointments in the Marine Biomedical Institute and the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) and served in leadership roles at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in Rome.

Dr. Micci began teaching at UTMB in 1996 in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and is currently a tenured associate professor in the Department of Anesthesiology. During her time at UTMB, Dr. Micci has also served as Co-Director of the Confocal Microscopy Facility and Director of the Histopathology Core Facility.

Dr. Micci’s current research focuses on nanopulsed laser therapy for the treatment of traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative brain disorders and the development of mechanisms for resistance to Alzheimer’s disease. Her research has been well-funded and is currently supported by the National Institute on Aging, Department of Defense, and The Kleberg Foundation. She holds multiple patents for her scientific discoveries, has over 40 peer-reviewed publications and reviews, and has been an invited speaker at numerous local and international symposia and conferences. She has served as a scientific reviewer for multiple scientific journals and as a grant reviewer for the Italian Ministry of Health and NIH study sections, including the National Institute of Mental Health, Neurogenesis and Cell Fate, and Neuroscience study sections.

During her tenure at UTMB, Dr. Micci has also shown strong dedication to graduate education. She teaches in both the GSBS and the School of Medicine and has successfully mentored 12 PhD students for rotations or dissertation studies, 1 medical resident, 11 medical students, 6 undergraduates, and 5 high school students. Two recent PhD graduates have obtained impressive positions post-graduation, one as a postdoctoral fellow at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy, and another as an Assistant Professor and Director of Community Engagement and Education for the newly established Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain (MIDB) at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Micci is also active in the administration of the Neuroscience Graduate Program, most notably as current chairperson of the Neuroscience Graduate Program admissions committee and member of the Advisory committee for the joint PhD program between UTMB and the University of Palermo. She holds faculty appointments in the Human Pathophysiology and Translational Medicine Graduate Program and the Neuroscience Graduate Program and serves as a member of the GSBS Kempner Fellowship Committee.

Neurodegenerative Diseases.

excellence.