Members of the Center for Neurobiology of Stress fall into one or more of the following categories: (1) investigators at UCLA, VAGLAHS, Ohio State University, University of Pittsburgh, or other campus who are principal or co-principal investigators with peer-reviewed, competitive funding for research in neurovisceral sciences, gastrointestinal disorders, urological disorders, and stress neurobiology, and stress-immune system interactions, particularly related to sex-based differences and whose research directly impacts the goals of the Center; (2) division chiefs in gastroenterology, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, and psychiatry; (3) directors or co-directors of programs or cores, or individuals who have relevant roles within the Center and (4) clinicians who have made significant contributions to the main subject matters of the Center.
If you are interested in becoming a member, please contact Million Mulugeta, DVM, PhD at mmuluget@ucla.edu.
Members are listed in alphabetical order.
P
Martin Paulus, MD
Professor in Residence, Department of Psychiatry, Laboratory of Biological Dynamics and Theoretical Medicine, University of California, San Diego
Dr. Paulus studied Medicine at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz from 1979-1985. He received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) in 1986 to study the effects of calcium antagonists on animal models of mania at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). In 1993, Dr. Paulus left UCSD to resume his medical training and completed his internship at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center / Zucker Hillside Hospital on Long Island, NY. In 1994, he rejoined the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD as a psychiatric resident. Dr. Paulus completed his residency in psychiatry in 1997. At that time, he joined the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD as an Assistant Professor. He also became a staff psychiatrist at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Health Care System (VASDHS). Dr. Paulus is currently a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD and Director of Telemental Health at the VASDHS, which focuses on delivering evidence based psychotherapy to Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In May 2014, Dr. Paulus joined the Laureate Institute For Brain Research (LIBR) in Tulsa, OK, as the Scientific Director and President.
Joseph Pisegna, MD
Professor, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; Chief, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System
Dr. Joseph Pisegna is Professor of Medicine at UCLA and Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. Dr. Pisegna is interested in the molecular pharmacology of hormones and receptors in the gastrointestinal tract, especially the diagnosis and management of islet cell tumors of the pancreas, including the Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome. These research and clinical interests derive from research in the biochemistry and physiology of neuroendocrine tumors. While a fellow at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Pisegna first developed a clinical interest in the Zollinger-Ellison Syndrome (ZES), where he discovered and cloned the receptor for gastrin and named it the cholecystokinin B receptor. More recently, Dr. Pisegna has demonstrated that receptors for gastrin are present in the kidney and mediate food-induced regulation of salt excretion. Dr. Pisegna was recruited to the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Center for Ulcer Research and Education (CURE) in 1996. He is a recipient of the VA Career Development Award at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. His addition to the faculty of the UCLA Center for Pancreatic Diseases provides unsurpassed expertise in the diagnosis and medical management of pancreatic endocrine tumors.
Charalabos Pothoulakis, MD
Director of Research, UCLA Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases; Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Digestive Diseases/Gastroenterology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Dr. Pothoulakis graduated from the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki Medical School in Greece and he joined the Division of Gastroenterology at Boston University Medical Center as a Research Fellow in Gastroenterology in 1982. After completion of his fellowship he became a faculty member at the Department of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr Pothoulakis joined the Division of Gastroenterology at Beth Israel Medical Center, Harvard Medical School in 1996 as an Assistant Professor and became Professor of Medicine in this institution in 2005. In 2003 he established a “Gastrointestinal Neuropeptide Center” in the Division of Gastroenterology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center that involved a multi-disciplinary approach to study neuropeptide function in the GI tract. During his tenure at Harvard Medical School he has also been a member of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at Massachusetts General Hospital and he was the Director of a NIH Program Project grant that examined the barrier function of the GI Tract in health and disease.
Dr. Pothoulakis’ research program is primarily focused on the role of neuropeptides and hormones in several disease states, including Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Clostridium difficile infection, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome. His recent projects also involve the neuropeptide-dependent mechanisms by which communication between the intestinal mucosa and the fat depots affect the pathogenesis of intestinal inflammation. He is an author of over 165 original articles and numerous reviews and book chapters and served in the Editorial Board of several biomedical journals, including Gastroenterology, and American Journal of Physiology. He was recently elected as the Vice Chair of the Hormones, Transmitters, Growth Factors and Receptors Section of the American Gastroenterological Association, and has been a member of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Section of this Association. In 2005 Dr. Pothoulakis received an honorary degree from Harvard University and he is the recipient of the “Janssen Award in Basic Research in Gastrointestinal Motility” by the American Gastroenterological Association for his discoveries and insights into the function of gastrointestinal neuropeptides. Dr. Pothoulakis’ research projects have been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, the Broad Foundation, The Martin Blinder Foundation for Crohn’s Disease, and the Knapp Foundation.