Meet our team
Matthew Girgenti, PhD
Principal InvestigatorMy research over the past 5 years has focused on postmortem studies of human brain in PTSD and related complex behavioral disorders. I’m a molecular neuroscientist interested in functional genomics and big data approaches to understanding molecular signatures of neuropsychiatric disease. I live on a horse farm in southwest Connecticut with my wife and two kids.
Catharine Duman, PhD
Associate Research ScientistI use immunohistochemistry and confocal imaging in post-mortem human brains to investigate neuronal proteins that might be important to PTSD and depression. My previous work focused on developing and implementing methods for morphological analysis of dendritic spines and synaptic proteins in rat brains. I love the outdoors and when not at the microscope, I hope to be on a bike or planting trees.
As a research associate I am a jack-of-all-trades, but most of the projects I have been involved with investigate Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I perform molecular and behavioral studies and am learning more about genomics. When I have free time I like to hike, snowboard, rock climb, play guitar, and the list goes on.
I want to understand the pathogenesis of psychiatric diseases using multiple approaches. My current focus is -omics data analysis. Outside the lab, I'm a traveler and a binge-watcher.