Fereshteh Nugent

Dr. Fereshteh Nugent is a tenured Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Neuroscience at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), School of Medicine. Her research focuses on synaptic plasticity, drug addiction, neuropsychiatric disorders, and the effects of early life stress and traumatic brain injury on neural circuits. She holds editorial roles at journals like Frontiers in Synaptic Neuroscience and Communications Biology, and has received multiple awards, including the 2019 Henry C. Wu Award.

Education: Ph.D. in Neurophysiology from Tarbiat Modarres University (2003), followed by postdoctoral training at Brown University (2003–2008). Current lab members include Postdoctoral Fellows Dr. Ludovic Langlois and Dr. Sarah Simmons, and Graduate Students William Flerlage and Christopher Bouslog. Alumni include Dr. Matthieu Dacher and Dr. Michael Authement.

Research emphasizes mechanisms linking stress, brain injury, and addiction, using electrophysiology, optogenetics, and behavioral models. Key areas include lateral habenula dysfunction in motivational deficits, CRF signaling modulation, and HDAC-based therapeutic interventions for synaptic dysfunctions.

Publications highlight contributions to understanding GABAergic plasticity in addiction, mTBI-induced circuit alterations, and epigenetic regulation in reward pathways. Awards reflect her impactful contributions to neuroscience education and research at USUHS.