Davide Amato

Davide Amato is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Cincinnati. He received his M.Sc. (2003) and Ph.D. (2008) from Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, followed by postdoctoral training at King's College London, UK, and a teaching doctorate (2017) in experimental psychiatry from Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.

His research at the Amato Lab employs in vivo imaging, ex vivo electrophysiology, and behavioral analysis to investigate cortico-striatal synaptic plasticity mechanisms. Key focuses include dopamine-glutamate interactions in psychiatric/neurological disorders, antipsychotic efficacy mechanisms, and addiction relapse pathways. Major contributions include identifying D2-neuron roles in drug sensitization, developing animal models for extinction learning deficits, and proposing dopamine transporter targeting for treatment-resistant psychosis.

He leads the Amato Lab, which specializes in neurobiological mechanisms underlying addiction and mental health disorders through multidisciplinary experimental approaches.