Associate Professor
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Biography
BIRCWH Scholar: 2015 - 2017
Vasiliki (Vas) Michopoulos, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Emory University and a Research Associate at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Vas received her PhD in Neuroscience and MS in Clinical Research in 2012 from Emory University after receiving her BA in neuroscience in 2005 from the University of Virginia. Dr. Jovanovic served as her primary mentor during her BIRCWH appointment.
The co-morbidity stress-induced mental and physical health disorders is more prevalent in women than men, highlighting the critical importance of systematically address the mechanisms and manifestations of these disruptions in behavior and physiology in females without generalizing findings from males. Thus, Vas’ research investigates how psychosocial stress exposure (including trauma) across the lifespan adversely affects behavior and physiology using a translational neuroscience approach across non-human primates and humans in a sex-specific manner. Her research is committed to studying women’s health by focusing broadly on how adverse social experience influences physiology, behavior, brain processes, and the emergence of psychopathology through changes in neuroendocrine and inflammatory signaling.
Click on the link to see a complete list of Vas' published work in MyBibliography: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/vasiliki.michopoulos.1/bibliography/40745742/public/?sort=date&direction=ascending
Accomplishments
Awards Received
2017: Winter Congress on Brain Research Travel Award Recipient
Grant Funding
R01 – PI: Title: The effects of pregnancy on post traumatic symptoms and fear physiology in traumatized African American women
U54 – PI (subproject): Title: NEURO HPA PROJECT 1
R01 – MPI: Title: Sex Differences in the Social Brain
R01 – MPI: Title: Stress and the Genome: Testing the Impact of Social Effects on Gene Regulation
Appointments
September 2016 - Promoted to Tenure Track Position in Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Affiliate Scientist at Yerkes.
2017 - Board of Directors, Anxiety and Depression Association of America
2018 - Emory BIRCWH Executive Committee member
Editorial Board: Science Translational Medicine – Associate Scientific Advisor