Faculty Candidate · 2026

The neurobiology of risk & resilience across the lifespan.

I study why early-life stress raises the risk of mental illness later in life — using the immune system as a window into how adversity is written into the brain and body, and what allows some of us to stay resilient as we age.

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Immune cells at the brain's vascular borders — Fig. 01 — Immune cells patrol the brain's vascular borders, relaying signals between body and brain.

EARLY LIFE

A window of vulnerability

Brain and immune systems co-assemble in early life — and adversity during this window is embedded in both, shaping long-term trajectories.

ADULTHOOD

Stress at the brain's borders

Chronic stress reshapes immune signaling at the meninges — the brain's protective border — to alter mood and behavior.

LATER LIFE

Resilience & aging

Why do some people withstand early adversity while others don't — and how do those early marks surface as immune aging and later-life cognitive risk?