Position
Former Predoctoral IRTA Fellow,
Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology and Neuropsychopharmacology Section
Former Predoctoral IRTA Fellow,
Stress and Addiction Neuroscience Unit
Contact
Biomedical Research Center251 Bayview Boulevard
Suite 200
Room 08A406.13
Baltimore, MD 21224
Email: rani.richardson@nih.gov
Education
MD/PhD Student - University of North Carolina Medical Scientist Training Program National Institutes of Health Graduate Partnerships Program
B.A. in Biological Basis of Behavior with a Minor in Chemistry - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Research Interests
I am co-mentored in the sections on “Neurobiology of Addiction” and “Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology and Neuropsychopharmacology”. My research interests involve stress, addiction, and the gut-brain axis. The relationships between stress, alcohol use disorder, and products of the gastrointestinal tract such as ghrelin and gut microbiota remain unclear. Currently, I study the biological mechanisms of how stress and the gastrointestinal interact to impact alcohol-seeking behaviors, and vice versa. The goal is to investigate the stress-related and gastrointestinal pathways in preclinical models of alcohol use disorder (AUD) to identify novel neuropsychopharmacological targets for AUD and stress-related mood disorders. My long-term goal is to practice medicine as a physician-scientist and lead a research program as an independent investigator.
