Andari Lab: Autism & Social Affective Neuroscience (ASAN)

Dr. Elissar Andari, Ph.D. (she/her)

Assistant Professor

Email: elissar.andari@utoledo.edu
Office: Ruppert Health Center – 1150
Phone Number: 419.383.5227

Educational Background:

• Post-Doctoral fellow of Social Neuroscience at Emory University and at the Yerkes National Primate
• Research Center and at the Center for Translational Social Neuroscience
• Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Physiology from Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France
• M.S. in Neuroscience and Physiology from Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 in Lyon, France
• M.S. Neuropsychology and Cognitive Science from Université Lumiere Lyon 2 in Lyon, France
• B.S. in Psychomotor Therapy at the University Saint-Joseph in Beirut, Lebanon

Research Interests:
Precision medicine approach for oxytocin’s role in social cognition in autism spectrum disorder and other psychiatric disorders, Social cognition and brain function in autism spectrum disorder, Genomics in autism spectrum disorder. IV. Neural correlates of social functioning in neurotypicals individuals, Translational approaches for targeted drugs for social cognition and infectious disease.

Gwen Hoffman (she/her)

Research Assistant/Coordinator

Email: gwen.hoffman@utoledo.edu 

Education Background:

BS in Neuroscience and Psychology from University of Michigan

Research Interests:

Integration of research with clinical work and the development of  targeted screening, assessment, and treatment approaches.

Daniella Gamboa (she/her)

Ph.D. Candidate, Biomedical Sciences – Neuroscience

Email: daniella.gamboapabon@rockets.utoledo.edu

Education Background:

BS in Biology with a concentration in Neuroscience and minor in Chemistry from The University of Toledo

Research Interests:

Translational models and pharmacological treatments of ASD.
I am interested in using prairie voles as an animal model to study social learning.
My thesis will consist of exploring the endocannabinoid system and its impact on social behavior in prairie voles.

Gabby “Chris” Vento (she/her)

Ph.D. Candidate, Biomedical Sciences – Bioinformatics;
Team Leader for Computational Biology

Email: christopher.vento@rockets.utoledo.edu

Education Background:

MS in Biology from Bowling Green State University (BGSU),
Graduate Certificate in Bioinformatics from BGSU/UToledo, BS in Neuroscience from BGSU

Research Interests:

Multimodal models of Autism Spectrum Disorder Subtypes using Multiomics approaches. I use modernized machine learning approaches to predict ASD diagnosis and to generate putative ASD subytpes that are biologically relevant.