Nina Ardabili
I am a first-year PhD student in Behavior, Cognition, and Neuroscience and entering the psychopharmacology lab advised by Dr. Anthony Riley and Terry Davidson. I graduated from American University in the spring of 2021 with my MS in Analytical Chemistry.
During my master's I worked in Analytical Neuro-Chemistry Lab. Using a novel method of Fast Scan Cyclic Voltammetry (FSCV) and carbon fiber microelectrodes I was able to characterize and develop a method (waveform) to detect oxytocin and Tyrosine contain compounds both in vivo and ex vivo these electrodes can be used in animal tissues as well. After my graduation, I worked as an Adjunct faculty at American University and thought Chemistry laboratories it was a great experience, and I had a chance to learn new teaching skills and involve with students.
Meanwhile, I joined Dr. Anthony Riley's lab with the Eco-HIV project. In this project, we investigate how the cognitive impairments caused by HIV may exacerbate drug Addiction and study the association between HIV infection and addiction which leads to impairing immunological and non-immunological pathways.
During this year I've obtained so many skills such as different behavioral study designs and Intravenous (IV) catheterization surgeries.
Considering the growth of Drug addiction and Obesity and their effect on the human brain, which bring serious health threats we would like to find the roots and address these issues and find a pathway to control.
My goal is to study the effect of the different drugs on the western diet which is high in fat and sugar on animal models and look into their brain impairment and using my analytical skills, measure the change of the neurotransmitters and their metabolites in the brain sample.