Sweet Lab Members

Robert A. Sweet, MD

UPMC Endowed Professor, Psychiatric Neuroscience
Professor, Neurology and Clinical and Translational Science

Dr. Sweet joined the Department of Psychiatry faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 1990, and is currently UPMC Endowed Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience and Professor of Neurology. His clinical work as a geriatric psychiatrist has played an important role in his formation as a translational scientist. Over the course of his career, he has established and led an extremely successful and cutting-edge research program investigating the genetic liabilities for, and the neurobiological underpinnings of, psychosis in two main disorders – Alzheimer disease (AD) and schizophrenia. Despite his significant research responsibilities, he continues to see patients as part of his role as the director of the clinical core of the Alzheimer Disease Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Sweet has also earned a much deserved reputation as a thoughtful teacher and mentor, and an excellent administrator and academic citizen.

Research interests: Schizophrenia, psychosis in Alzheimer’s disease, translational neuroscience
Favorite things outside the lab: Hanging with my grandson, mountain biking, country blues guitar

Faculty Page
Publications

Biomedical Science Tower
sweetra@upmc.edu


Matthew MacDonald, PhD

Assistant Professor, Psychiatry

Dr. MacDonald is currently the Principal Investigator for two externally sponsored projects: a NARSAD Young Investigator Award and a career development award from the National Institute of Mental Health. With support from the NARSAD grant, he is examining glutamate signaling abnormalities correlated with auditory-cortex dendritic spine loss in schizophrenia. His K01 career development award will fund his research on ATP1A3 induced alterations to glutamate signaling protein networks in schizophrenia. Dr. MacDonald has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals including the Archives of General Psychiatry and Biological Psychiatry and has presented his work at conferences and the annual meetings of professional societies.

Research interests: Proteomics, schizophrenia
Favorite thing outside the lab: Cooking, city-biking, muay thai, yoga, and getting bossed around by my daughter

Faculty Page

Biomedical Science Tower
macdonaldml@upmc.edu


Brandon McKinney, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Psychiatry

Dr. McKinney studies the regulation of gene expression by DNA methylation in schizophrenia. His studies utilize postmortem brain tissue from individuals with schizophrenia, primary neuronal cultures, and cutting-edge molecular and statistical approaches to genomic/epigenetic data in order to identify epigenetic drug targets and novel treatment approaches. After earning his MD and PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Michigan, he completed his residency training at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC (WPIC). His subsequent work as a postdoctoral scholar in the Pitt Department of Psychiatry's T32 Training for Transformative Discovery served as the basis for his current KL2 career development award from University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Scholars Program (funded by NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences).

Research interests: Schizophrenia, aging, epigenetics
Favorite things outside the lab: Being dog dad to Maggie, Jae-Jae, and Roane, attending musical theater performances, collecting fountain pens, solving crossword puzzles, drinking IPAs, searching for the perfect cup of coffee

Faculty Page
Publications

Biomedical Science Tower
mckinneybc@upmc.edu

 


Mel Grubisha, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Psychiatry

Melanie is a Pittsburgh native, completing her MD/PhD training at Pitt where she obtained her doctorate through the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology. She went on to complete her residency in psychiatry at UPMC, where she joined the Psychiatry Research Pathway (PRP) and served as the PRP chief resident during her 4th year. During her time in the PRP she began working with Dr. Sweet on molecular mechanisms underlying dendritic impairments in schizophrenia, and following residency graduation she continued her work with Dr. Sweet as a T32 postdoctoral scholar in his lab. She is currently using a mouse model of a rare, naturally occurring gain-of-function mutation in the RhoA domain of the KALRN gene to interrogate how increased RhoA signaling contributes to dendritic impairments as they relate to schizophrenia. She also sees patients in a homeless clinic one day per week, specializing in the treatment of serious mental illness in Pittsburgh's most vulnerable populations.

Research interests: Schizophrenia, dendrites, Kalirin
Favorite things outside the lab: My husband and 2 young children, cooking, exercising (which is often accomplished chasing aforementioned kids)

Biomedical Science Tower
grubisham@upmc.edu


Josh Krivinko, MD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Josh Krivinko joined the Psychiatry Residency at the University of Pittsburgh in 2019, after completing the Physician Scientist Training Program (PSTP) at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Josh is currently a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Physician Scientist Incubator Scholar. Josh began studying with Dr. Sweet as an undergraduate neuroscience major, and over the course of his training has focused on uncovering novel therapeutic targets for treatment of psychotic symptoms in Alzheimer Disease. His
most recent project with Dr. Sweet has involved examining the effects of an FDA-approved pharmacotherapy for multiple sclerosis on the synaptic proteome and aberrant behaviors in a mouse model of amyloid overproduction.

Research interests: Basic/translational neuroscience
Favorite things outside the lab: Spending time with family, playing classical piano, and caring for his two cats, Alejandro and Mo

Biomedical Science Tower
krivinkojm@upmc.edu

 


Cindy Chou, MD, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Cindy completed her MD and PhD training at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, then joined the Psychiatry Residency at the University of Pittsburgh in 2017, where she is a member of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship and the Psychiatry Research Pathway. Her interests include the influence of environmental factors, in particular stress and substance exposures, on the development of psychopathologies. Clinically she has participated in initiatives focused on psychiatric education, service implementation, and cultural psychiatry. She also contributes academically as a member of AACAP and ADMSEP committees.

Research interests: Schizophrenia, environmental stress, substance exposure, behavioral science
Favorite things outside the lab: Clarinet performance, movies, skiing

Biomedical Science Tower
chous@upmc.edu


Emily Parker

Graduate Student Researcher

Emily is a Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA fellow and doctoral candidate in the Sweet lab, where her broad research goal is to investigate molecular mechanisms driving dendritic spine alterations like those observed in primary auditory cortex in postmortem brains of schizophrenia patients. She is particularly interested in how up and down regulation of voltage-gated calcium channels impacts dendritic spine morphology, dynamics and function in mice. Emily utilizes various methods to answer her research
questions, combining viral transgenic methods and RNA interference to manipulate gene expression with mass spectrometry, fluorescence microscopy, calcium imaging and patch clamp electrophysiology. Before joining the Sweet Lab Emily earned a BA in Cognitive Science from the University of Georgia where she was supported by an academic scholarship and worked in the lab of Dr. Brett Clementz, investigating auditory and visual deficits in patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder and their first-degree relatives. Emily went on to earn a MA in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University and work at the Nathan Kline Institute in the labs of Drs. Daniel Javitt and Matthew Hoptman, where her research explored auditory sensory processing and response inhibition deficits in patients with schizophrenia. Emily hails from the great state of North Carolina. Her long-term goal is to run her own lab.

Research interests: Mechanisms driving sensory processing deficits in schizophrenia and related disorders, auditory and multi-sensory neuroscience, synaptic pathology, dendritic spine dynamics, mental illness stigma
Favorite things outside the lab: Endurance and recreational sports, gardening, reading memoirs about mental illness

Biomedical Science Tower
parkerem2@upmc.edu

 


Rebecca DeGiosio

Graduate Student Researcher

Rebecca is currently a graduate student in the Sweet lab. Her work focuses on understanding the contributions of cytoskeletal dysregulation to schizophrenia pathology, particularly by way of microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2) dysfunction. She employs a variety of biochemical, molecular, and histological techniques to visualize and manipulate these processes in both human postmortem tissue and cell culture. Rebecca began her scientific career as an undergraduate researcher in two laboratories at Penn State University, where she graduated from the Schreyer Honors College with a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Here she investigated mechanisms of microsatellite repeat expansion, and piloted small-molecule based strategies for glial cell reprogramming for treatment of traumatic brain injury. Combining this long-standing love of molecular biology with interests in psychiatric illness and translational neuroscience, her overarching academic goal is to identify and understand dysregulated molecular pathways which affect synaptic function in psychiatric disorder to guide development of novel therapeutics.

Research interests: Psychiatry, schizophrenia, cytoskeletal function, synaptic structure, synaptic plasticity
Favorite things outside the lab: Fiction writing, painting, cooking

Biomedical Science Tower
rebeccad@upmc.edu


Michael DeChellis-Marks

Michael DeChellis-Marks

Graduate Student Researcher

Michael is currently a graduate student in the Sweet Lab and MacDonald lab. His work is centered on probing the alterations in proteome dynamics impacting psychosis in Alzheimer’s disease by utilizing mass spectrometry to analyze protein abundance and changes in postmortem tissue. Michael is a University of Pittsburgh alumni, having worked with Dr. Floh Thiels as an undergraduate, and Dr. Christopher Donnely as a research specialist. During his previous research experience, Michael investigated the neuronal excitability changes in animal models of addiction, and RNA biology in ALS using novel optogenetic techniques. Going forward, Michael’s research interests reside in investigating the neural basis of psychosis in psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases.

Research Interests: Psychiatry, neurodegeneration, psychosis, synaptic structure and function
Favorite things outside the lab: cars, football, reading, whiskey, working out

Biomedical Science Tower 3
marksm5@upmc.edu

 


PAST MEMBERS


Patrick Murray, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Current Position:
Senior Healthcare Analyst and Policy Writer
Medical Mutual, Ohio

Caitlin Moyer, PhD

Graduate Student Researcher

Current Position:
Associate Editor, PLOS Medicine


Caitlin Kirkwood, PhD

Graduate Student Researcher

Current Position:
Medical Research Analyst
Hayes, Inc.

Micah Shelton, MS

Graduate Student Researcher

Current Position:
Research Project Coordinator
UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital, Pittsburgh


Anil V. Vatsavayi, MD, MPH

Postdoctoral Fellow

Current Position:
Staff Psychiatrist, Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Program, McLean Hospital
Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Anthony J. Deo, MD, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

Current Position:
Attending Psychiatrist, Department of Psychiatry, Boston Children's Hospital
Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School