Research Labs

Faculty members of the Columbia Department of Psychiatry run a wide variety of Research Laboratories. Columbia Psychiatry faculty members are recognized as world leaders in the neurosciences and related disciplines, and have made major advances in understanding the biology of the mind. Research in these laboratories range from basic biological sciences to epidemiological, psychometric, neuroimaging and other areas. Many laboratories enroll people with psychiatric diagnoses and healthy controls to study psychiatric disorders using cutting edge technologies such as MRI and PET scanning.

  • The Brain Imaging Lab is housed in the Molecular Imaging and Neuropathology Division at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University Department of Psychiatry

  • Our research focuses on understanding the neurodevelopmental trajectories of psychiatric disorders that arise during childhood and adolescence.

  • The Denny Laboratory is interested in the molecular mechanisms underlying learning and memory.

  • This lab is devoted to the development of structured interviews and other assessment tools including training materials for making diagnoses in accord with the DSM and ICD.

  • The overarching goal of the Early N³ Lab is to identify early immune, brain, and neuropsychological antecedents of childhood psychiatric risk to reduce the time to intervention for young children.

  • Our goal is to better understand anxiety disorders and develop effective treatments for children and families.

  • The Grinband Lab focuses on neurovascular coupling, decision-making, and models of treatment response in schizophrenia.

  • Our lab mainly focuses on the neurobiological and computational mechanisms of psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia and of related cognitive functions in health.

  • We explore the computational principles underlying learning and decision-making behavior and inform our understanding of mental disorders through the study of variation in their neural realization.

  • Our laboratory uses mouse genetic tools in an effort to understand the biology that underlies the symptoms of schizophrenia.

  • The Lugo Lab aims to understand the risk-protective factors that confer resilience to perinatal risk and allow young children and families to thrive, despite facing significant adversity.

  • The focus of our lab is researching novel uses for existing therapies.

  • The Mitochondrial PsychoBiology Group conducts research that enhances the understanding of mind-body interactions.

  • The Patel Laboratory is interested in the neural mechanisms underlying social cognition and how they become disordered in neuropsychiatric disorders.

  • The Perinatal Pathways Lab conducts research studies with pregnant women and their babies to improve their well–being and their future children’s lives.

  • The Singh Lab is interested in using genomics to answer specific questions related to the causes of mental illnesses.

  • The Sultan Lab focuses on the interface of electronic databases, mental health and substance use epidemiology, and evidence-based treatments for common mental health conditions.

  • The Sussman Lab examines how exposure to adversities during childhood impact the development of decision making and related brain activity.

  • The Neural Circuits Lab investigates the neural circuitry underlying psychiatric disorders by recording and manipulating neural activity in mouse models.

  • Dedicated to Helping Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.