Allison Hamilos

Allison Hamilos is a Principal Investigator and Valhalla Fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. She holds MD and PhD degrees from Harvard Medical School and a bachelor's degree in Chemistry and Biology from MIT.

• Education: ScB (MIT), PhD (Harvard), MD (Harvard)
• Research Focus: Neural circuits in neurological/psychiatric disorders, dopamine's role in timing, stochastic behavior
• Methods: Electrophysiology, optogenetics, machine learning, computational modeling

Her lab studies how spontaneous behavior arises from neural circuits, with applications in Parkinson’s disease and decision-making under uncertainty. She has published extensively on dopamine dynamics, neural timing, and biomaterials for stem cell therapy.

Selected Scientific Awards:

• Howard Hughes Medical Institute Medical Research Fellow (2014)
• Lefler Center Predoctoral Fellowship (2018)
• Quan Fellowship in Neurobiology (2017)
• Martha L. Gray Prize (2017)
• Dewitt Wallace Prize (2012)

Her team includes undergraduate researchers, Master’s students, and technicians collaborating on projects involving neural circuit modeling, behavioral neuroscience, and translational research. She also investigates molecular mechanisms like ATP/dATP regulation in ribonucleotide reductase for cancer drug development.