Leadership and Staff

Jerrold Vitek, M.D., Ph.D.

Director

vitek004@umn.edu

Dr. Vitek is the newly appointed head of the MnDRIVE Brain Conditions Steering Committee at the University of Minnesota. He is also a McKnight Professor, Neurology Department Chair, Director for the Neuromodulation Research Program, and  Director of the Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson's Research. His research focuses on neuromotor disorders and  therapeutic intervention with deep brain stimulation (DBS).

Mark Thomas, Ph.D.

Co-Director

tmhomas@umn.edu

Mark received his B.S. from Northwestern University, his  Ph.D. from UCLA, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  He is currently an Professor in the Neuroscience Department and Director of the University of Minnesota Center for Addiction Neuroscience (UMnCAN) and heads the new NIDA P50 Center for Neural Circuits in Addiction. His research investigates the role of synaptic plasticity in brain reward circuits in addictive behavior.

Erin (Larson) Lind, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Preclinical Researcher,

Primary Contact

larso323@umn.edu

Erin received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. She is currently the Director of the University of Minnesota Mouse Behavior Core. Her research background includes investigation of mechanisms underlying addictive behavior and mood in males and females across molecular, cellular, systems, and behavioral levels. 

Flaminio Glaubitz, B.A.

Preclinical Researcher

glaub012@umn.edu 

Sam received his B.A. in Psychology from Carleton College. He currently works with both the optogenetics and behavior cores to develop, integrate, and expand optogenetics, fiber photometry, and behavior equipment and approaches. Prior to working at UMN, he was involved in research on neurodegenerative disease in aging primates, with a particular focus on how Alzheimer's and Frontotemporal Lobar Dementia (FTLD) differ from typical aging, and how these diseases present similarly and differently in non-human primates vs. humans.