Susanna Molas, Ph.D. 

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience

Faculty Fellow, Institute for Behavioral Genetics (IBG)

University of Colorado Boulder

Boulder, CO

Faculty associate at the Center for Neuroscience (CU Boulder)

Faculty member at the Crnic Institute Boulder Branch for Down Syndrome (CBB)

e-mail: 

susanna.molas@colorado.edu

ORCID / ResearchGate / Google Scholar 

Background

Dr. Molas received her PhD in Biomedicine in 2012 (Pompeu Fabra University) in the laboratory of Dr. Mara Dierssen at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Spain, where she studied drug addiction phenotypes in a mouse model of nicotine dependence. After the PhD, she worked as a Senior Research Scientist in collaboration with Prous Institute for Biomedical Research (Barcelona), where Dr. Molas assessed the therapeutic value of drugs designed to improve cognitive function in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases. On 2014, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Andrew R Tapper at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School (UMAss Chan) as a Postdoctoral Research Associate, where she established an independent research line to investigate the neuronal circuits and mechanisms that control novelty responses and habituation learning. Since 2021, she became faculty member in the Dept. of Neurobiology at the UMass Chan where through her independent work on novelty circuits received a 2021 NARSAD Young Investigator Grant and a NIH R21Award (Role: Co-I). She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Behavioral Genetics (IBG). Her work seeks to understand the circuits and mechanisms that underlie the novelty response and adaptive processes, in reward- and aversive-related contexts.

Positions

2023 - Assistant Professor,  Dept. of Psychology and Neuroscience,  University of Colorado, Boulder, US.

2023 - Faculty Fellow, Institute for Behavioral Genetics,  University of Colorado, Boulder, US.

2023 - Faculty Associate,  Center for Neuroscience,  University of Colorado, Boulder, US.

2023 - Faculty Member,  Crnic Institute Boulder Branch,  University of Colorado, Boulder, US.

2021 - 2022  Instructor, Faculty member, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Department of Neurobiology, Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, Worcester, US.

2014 - 2021 Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Department of Neurobiology, Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute , US. (Laboratory of Dr. Andrew R Tapper)

2012 - 2014 Senior Research Scientist, Center for Genomic Regulation and Prous Institute for Biomedical Research.

Education

2012  Ph.D. in Biomedicine, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain (Center for Genomic Regulation, Laboratory of Dr. Mara Dierssen).

2008  M.S. in Biomedical Research, Pompeu Fabra University, Spain.

2007  B.S. in Biotechnology, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain

Fellowships and awards

2021 BBRF Young Investigator Grant 

2008   JAE Pre-Doctoral Research Fellowship awarded by the Spanish National Research Council 

2007   B.S. extraordinary award, Autonomous University of Barcelona.