معرفی
Anjali M Rajadhyaksha, Ph.D., is an active faculty member at Weill Cornell Medical College serving as Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience in Pediatrics and Associate Professor of Neurology in Pediatrics. In parallel, she holds the administrative post of Associate Dean for Program Development at the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences.
Dr. Rajadhyaksha earned her B.S. from the University of Bombay (1986) and her Ph.D. from Purdue University (1992). She subsequently completed post-doctoral training in Psychiatry (1997–2000).
Her research program is dedicated to dissecting the molecular mechanisms that underlie substance abuse, drug addiction, and comorbid mood disorders. Using state-of-the-art genetic, cellular, and molecular techniques in rodent models, she investigates how voltage-gated L-type calcium channels Cav1.2 and Cav1.3 modulate calcium signaling and thereby influence cocaine-seeking behaviors and mood-related phenotypes. A translational focus links findings in rodents to human neuropsychiatric genetics, particularly mutations in CACNA1C and CACNA1D associated with bipolar disorder and addiction vulnerability.
Across more than 100 peer-reviewed publications spanning 1990–2025, her work explores calcium channelopathies, synaptic plasticity, neurodevelopment, and sex-specific mechanisms. Recent themes include:
- Channel blockade strategies to curb cue-induced relapse and withdrawal-induced anxiety;
- Developmental roles of cerebellar circuits in non-motor behavioral regulation;
- Integration of endocannabinoid and opioid systems in reward processing;
- Machine-learning-guided discovery of autism risk genes.
Dr. Rajadhyaksha’s laboratory is currently funded by multiple NIH grants (NIMH, NIDA) totaling several million dollars, acting as Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator on projects examining GABAergic interneuron dysfunction in autism and molecular defects underlying SCN2A mutations.
She is actively engaged in mentoring and program development, shaping the next generation of translational neuroscientists at Weill Cornell.
