Kerry J. Ressler, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator
Chief Scientific Officer, McLean Hospital
​Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
​Email | Pubmed | ResearchGate  | GoogleScholar
​Kerry J. Ressler, MD, PhD, is Chief Scientific Officer and James and Patricia Poitras Chair in Psychiatry at McLean Hospital, after serving at Emory University for 18 years. He is also a professor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and president-elect for the Society for Biological Psychiatry. Dr. Ressler was previously an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine).  Dr. Ressler’s lab focuses on translational research bridging molecular neurobiology in animal models with human genetic research on emotion, particularly fear and anxiety disorders. He has published over 225 manuscripts ranging from basic molecular mechanisms of fear processing to understanding how emotion is encoded in a region of the brain called the amygdala, in both animal models and human patients.

Instructors

Olga Y. Ponomareva, MD, PhD
Pubmed
​Olga is an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a postdoctoral researcher in the Ressler Lab, and a fellow in the Neuropsychiatry Translational Research Fellowship at the VA Boston Healthcare System. She is interested in sex-specific differences in the molecular mechanisms of fear circuitry. Olga graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Biology and BA in Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University. She completed medical training as part of the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her graduate work in neuroscience in the laboratory of Dr. Mary Halloran, during which time she was supported by an F31 NRSA grant. Olga completed psychiatry residency at the University of Maryland/Sheppard Pratt Psychiatry Residency Training Program, where she served as chief resident of Psychiatric Emergency Services. ​

Postdoctoral Researchers

Robert Aukema, PhD
Email |  GoogleScholar |  PubMed
Rob is a postdoctoral researcher in the Ressler lab where he is interested in studying the anatomy and function of the basolateral amygdala. In particular, he is interested in understanding the molecular identity of stress-responsive neurons and how prior stress exposure can influence the development of enhanced or persistent fear memory. He is grateful for the Jonathan Edward Brooking Mental Health Research Scholar Award for supporting his training. Rob earned his undergraduate (B.Sc.) at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, where he was first introduced to neuroscience working in Dr. Alfonso Abizaid’s lab studying the role of ghrelin on stress-related behaviours and metabolism. Rob then did his PhD training in Dr. Matthew Hill’s laboratory at the University of Calgary, Canada, where he studied the spatial, temporal, and circuit-specific patterns of activation of basolateral amygdala neurons during exposure to stress.
Leland L. Fleming, PhD
GoogleScholar
Leland is a postdoctoral researcher and NIH F99/K00 fellow in the Ressler Lab where he examines the enduring impact of stress-related disorders on brain structure and function. Leland earned his B.S. in Neuroscience from Baylor University. He then went on to earn his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences with focus in Neuroscience from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Leland's graduate work focused on using neuroimaging approaches to understand adult cortical plasticity following central vision loss in patients with macular degeneration. As a postdoctoral fellow, Leland continues to explore cortical plasticity of sensory systems in the context of development and stress-related disorders through a combination of human neuroimaging and bioinformatics approaches. His current work is supported through the NIH Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience (D-SPAN) Award.
Matthew Kearney, MD, PhD
GoogleScholar
​Matt is an instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a postdoctoral researcher in the Ressler Lab, and a fellow in the T32 Training to Enhance Alignment of Psychiatry and Neuroscience program at McLean Hospital. He is interested in understanding the role of sleep and neuromodulators in fear memory consolidation. Matt graduated from the University of Chicago with an AB in the Biological Sciences and Psychology and a minor in computational neuroscience. He received his MD and PhD from the Duke University School of Medicine where he completed his thesis work on reinforcement learning in songbirds in the laboratory of Richard Mooney. During graduate school, he was supported by an F30 NRSA award from the NINDS. Matt completed his psychiatry residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital/McLean Hospital Adult Psychiatry Residency training program where he served as an administrative chief resident. During residency, he received the Outstanding Resident Award from the NIMH and participated in the APA Research Colloquium for Junior Psychiatrist Investigators. Outside of the lab, Matt enjoys spending time with his wife and two kids, hiking, and basketball!

Doctoral Trainees

Zoe Beatty
Zoe is a PhD student in the Program in Neuroscience (PiN) at Harvard University and is conducting her thesis research in the Ressler Lab. She is interested in studying the role of neuropeptides in fear responding, as well as how neuropeptide systems are impacted by early life chronic stress. Zoe earned her undergraduate degree (B.S.) at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where she worked in Dr. Henry Lester’s lab engineering biosensors to detect drugs that act on the central nervous system.
Kira Höffler
Google Scholar​
Kira is a visiting PhD candidate in the Ressler Lab, joining from the University of Bergen, Norway. Her research focuses on identifying epigenetic markers associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and psychotherapy response. In parallel, she conducts in vitro experiments to manipulate DNA methylation at specific genomic loci relevant to psychiatric phenotypes, investigating how these modifications affect gene expression.
Kira holds a Master’s degree in Medical Biology with a focus on Medical Epigenomics from Radboud University in the Netherlands, and a Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Medicine from Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany. Her academic path has been shaped by research experience at leading institutes across Europe, with a consistent emphasis on psychiatric epigenetics and genetics. Her PhD is supported by a PhD fellowship and an international mobility scholarship from the Medical Faculty of the University of Bergen.
Malvina Millet
Google Scholar​
Malvina is a Ph.D. student in the Ressler lab, co-supervised by Prof. Kerry J. Ressler, Prof. Nikolaos P. Daskalakis and Prof Freddy Jeanneteau (University of Montpellier, France). Her research is supported by Dr. Chris Palmer Metabolic and Mental Health Program (MMHP). She is interested in understanding how adverse childhood experiences that lead to anxiety disorders in adulthood can be modulated through dietary interventions. Specifically, she uses a multi-omic approach to explore the metabolic and transcriptomic mechanisms that link nutrition to psychiatric outcomes. Malvina earned her Master’s degree in Neuroscience from the University of Aix-Marseille, France, and a Bachelor’s degree in Human Nutrition and Psychology from the University of Lyon, France, both awarded with honours. During her Master’s, she received AMIDEX European grant to conduct her research training in Finland at the University of Helsinki, under the supervision of Prof. Iris Hovatta, where she worked on a PTSD gene candidate. Her academic path has been shaped by interdisciplinary training at the intersection of psychiatry, nutrition, and systems biology.

Senior Laboratory Management

Kim Cramer
Research Project Manager
LinkedIn
​Kim is a Research Project Manager, supporting both the Chief Scientific Office and the Depression and Anxiety Division and the McLean Hospital COVID-19 Rapid Responder Testing Program Manager.  A graduate of Union College who also holds a Certificate in Human Resources Management from Rutgers, Kim has over 20 years of supporting executive staff and project management. 
Claudia Klengel, MD
Laboratory Manager
Pubmed | ResearchGate
Claudia is the lab manager and responsible for managing the daily operations of the Ressler Lab. She received her MD from the Technical University of Munich, Germany and started her residency in anesthesia at the Rotkreuzklinikum in Munich. After moving to the United States, she joined the Ressler Lab at Emory University, in Atlanta as a Research Technician. In her current role as the lab manager of the Ressler at McLean Hospital, in Belmont, she takes responsibility of financial, technical, organizational and safety-related aspects of the lab. She utilizes her diverse technical skills spanning molecular biology, rodent behavioral work and clinical biomarkers experience in multiple translational research projects of the lab and in the McLean Hospital branch of the Partners HealthCare Biobank. 

Research Assistants

Paloma Martinez Gonzalez
Pubmed​​
Paloma is a technical research assistant at the Neurobiology of Fear Laboratory where she assists in projects that look at preclinical models of PTSD and associated cellular changes in specific brain regions using methods in immunohistochemistry, fear learning, and fear conditioning. In 2024, Paloma graduated from Wheaton College (MA) with a Bachelor of Arts in neuroscience and a minor in chemistry.
Carmen Irujo
Carmen is a Clinical Research Assistant embedded on the Short-Term Unit North for the Ressler Neurobiology of Fear Lab. Carmen coordinates the Psychometrics at McLean and Mass General Brigham Biobank studies and administers clinical self-assessments. Before this role, Carmen worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Social Interactions and Adjustment Lab at the University of Maine supporting studies focused on the mediational role of emotion regulation and perceived social support when exposed to cyber victimization. Carmen graduated from UMaine in 2022 with a BA in Psychology.​​
A.J. Padina
​A.J. Pandina is a Clinical Research Assistant in both the Ressler Neurobiology of Fear Lab and the Baker Functional Imaging at McLean Lab. In the past, he worked as a substitute teacher at Cambridge Public Schools and taught English to adult Spanish-speaking refugees in Somerville, MA. He graduated from Tufts University in 2022 with a B.S. in Biopsychology.
Nicola Sharp
Nicola is a Clinical Research Assistant under the mentorship of Dr Mohammad S.E. Sendi. In the Ressler Lab, her work focuses on computational analysis of EEG signals in patients with PTSD as they go through Written Exposure Therapy. During her time as an undergraduate at the University of Oxford (’23), her research project focused on novel approaches to unsupervised machine learning analysis of astrocytes in Alzheimer’s disease. She later graduated from Harvard Medical School with a Master of Science in Media, Medicine, and Health (’24), where she interviewed researchers on their experiences studying stigmatized healthcare topics, whilst interning part-time on a McLean study on adult survivors of child sexual abuse. Outside of her research, she has been an avid campaigner against sexual violence. Her goal is to restore autonomy and agency to people who have experienced trauma or neurological disease.
Jozi Tatham
Jozi Tatham is a Clinical Research Assistant with the Ressler Neurobiology of Fear Lab located on Proctor House 2. On the unit, Jozi coordinates research studies for the Ressler Lab and the MGB Biobank. Before joining the Ressler Lab, Jozi owned and operated a yoga, mindfulness, and meditation studio that worked with the Milwaukee Behavioral Health Department in offering trauma-informed services to underserved communities. Jozi received her BA in English and Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her MA in Philosophy from Loyola Marymount University. She will be pursuing her MSN from Boston College this fall.
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Khalil J. Threadgill
Khalil is a Technical Research Assistant at McLean Hospital in the Ressler Neurobiology of Fear Laboratory. There, he assists in research projects by conducting experiments using immunohistochemistry, viral approaches, and translational behavioral techniques to study threat and aggression neurocircuitry. Khalil received his BA in Integrative Biology from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts ('22).