Mazen Kheirbek

Dr. Mazen Kheirbek is a Professor in Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine. He leads research at the Kheirbek Lab, focusing on hippocampal circuits in emotional behavior and psychiatric disorders.

• Education: BA (Washington University), PhD (University of Chicago), Postdoc (Columbia University)

Research Interests center on:

• Neural circuits in anxiety and depression
• Hippocampal-prefrontal pathways
• Adult neurogenesis mechanisms
• Neuroplasticity in mood disorders
• Optogenetics and circuit mapping
• Translational psychiatry

Publication Trends show consistent contributions to neuroscience journals, particularly in hippocampal function, neural circuits, and psychiatric disorders. His work often employs animal models and advanced imaging techniques.

Scientific Awards:

• McKnight Foundation Memory & Cognitive Disorders Award (2020)
• Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences (2019)
• Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship (2019)
• Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigator (2019)
• NARSAD Young Investigator Award (2012)

Grants include multiple NIH-funded projects:

• NIH/NIDA 1R01DA062018 (2025-2030): Dopaminergic circuits in insight learning
• NIH/NIMH 1R01MH136270 (2025-2030): Hippocampal stimulus processing
• NIH/NIDCD R01DC19813 (2021-2026): Dentate gyrus associative learning