Sahib Khalsa

Sahib Khalsa, M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in Residence in the Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He serves as the Director of Anxiety Disorders Research and is an Associate Member at the institution.

Dr. Khalsa's educational background includes both medical (M.D.) and doctoral (Ph.D.) degrees, though specific institutions are not detailed in the provided text.

His research focuses on understanding the pathophysiological basis of interoception—the process by which the nervous system senses internal body signals to regulate homeostasis. He investigates neuroscience-informed clinical applications of interoceptive interventions for disorders affecting physical and mental health. His interdisciplinary expertise spans pharmacology, cognitive neuroscience, functional neuroimaging, electroencephalography, computational psychiatry, and behavioral clinical trials.

Dr. Khalsa's work aims to develop better methods for assessing interoception and to answer basic and clinical questions in individuals with psychiatric disorders (including anxiety and eating disorders) and medical conditions (including cardiac arrhythmias). He integrates numerous methods to interrogate cardiovascular, respiratory, and gastrointestinal interoception across psychiatric and medical conditions, including pharmaco-fMRI, EEG with computational modeling, and non-pharmacologic interventions like floatation-REST.

His research projects have been NIH-funded at the principal investigator level at every career stage (F31, R01 supplement, K23, R34, R01, and P20 subproject), as well as by private foundation and industry grants. Over the past nine years, he served as Director of Clinical Operations at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR), supervising numerous NIH and industry-sponsored clinical trials.

Research Interests:

• Interoception and its role in psychiatric disorders
• Neuroscience-informed clinical interventions
• Functional neuroimaging and electroencephalography
• Computational psychiatry
• Behavioral clinical trials
• Cardiac arrhythmias and their psychiatric comorbidities

Funding and Grants:

• NIH grants: F31, R01 supplement, K23, R34, R01, P20 subproject
• Private foundation grants
• Industry-sponsored research

Clinical Leadership:

• Director of Clinical Operations at Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR)
• Supervised numerous NIH and industry-sponsored clinical trials
• Ensured participant safety and successful data collection