Drew Kiraly, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor, Physiology, Pharmacology & Psychiatry
Attending Physician, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist
Drew received his MD and PhD degrees from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He performed his doctoral thesis work in the laboratory of Dr. Betty Eipper studying dendritic spine dynamics, behavioral response to drugs of abuse, and cell-surface receptor trafficking in relation to the post-synaptic Rho-GEF Kalirin-7. From this work, Drew published numerous manuscripts, and was awarded a prestigious F30 NRSA Fellowship from NIDA to support his research efforts. During his clinical clerkships Drew received the Bloomberg Award for medical student excellence in psychiatry.
Drew enrolled in the Psychiatry Residency at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and in addition to being Chief Resident for the final two years of his training, he also completed a research fellowship in the lab of Dr. Eric Nestler. During his time in the lab he developed his own research program examining the role of neuroimmune interactions and the gut microbiome in addiction, autism spectrum disorder and depression. In addition to multiple first and senior-author publications he was awarded an ACNP Memorial Travel Award, was selected to the NIMH Outstanding Resident Award Program, was chosen as a Leon Levy Fellow in Neuroscience, and a Seaver Family Foundation Fellow.
In addition to running the lab, Drew works as a physician in the emergency room of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital, and sees a very limited number of patients in private practice.
Contact Drew:
email: dkiraly@wakehealth.edu twitter: @KiralyLab
Rebecca Hofford, PhD
Assistant Professor
NIDA K01 Awardee
Rebecca Hofford got her PhD from Texas A&M in 2012 where she studied the effects of social environment on adolescent sensitivity to morphine. She continued her career as a postdoc at the University of Kentucky studying the mechanisms underlying the attenuation of drug reinforcement caused by environmental enrichment. She has continued her academic journey across the United States to New York City where she joined the Kiraly Lab and with them to North Carolina. In her spare time, she enjoys free yoga classes, reading “non-science” things, binge watching Netflix, hiking, skiing, and fully embracing her inner cat lady.
Contact Becca: rhofford@wakehealth.edu