Cameron D. Pernia, PhD

Cameron D. Pernia, PhD, has always been fascinated about how the most microscopic objects, molecules and ions, when organized precisely in the most complex machine known to exist, the human brain, create macroscopic phenomena such as behavior and cognition. These interests lead him to the lab of Evan Snyder, where he obtained his PhD studying how to model neurological and psychiatric disorders with induced pluripotent stem cells. Dr. Pernia’s dissertation focused on how the genetics of bipolar disorder cause aberrations in neuronal signaling, which manifest into dysfunction at the larger scale of neuronal networks and cognition.

Dr. Pernia is performing his post-doctoral work under Drs. Nikos Daskalakis and Kerry Ressler. He is interested in developing novel in vitro tools for studying epigenetic and acquired psychological disorders related to stress. Dr. Pernia’s long-term goal is to develop innovative approaches for studying psychiatric conditions, including PTSD, in the hopes of finding new treatments.