Tiffany Ho

Dr. Tiffany Ho is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is also affiliated with the Cognition, Affect, and Neurodevelopment in Youth (CANDY) lab, where she leads research on adolescent neurodevelopment, depression, and the neurobiological impacts of early adversity. Her work integrates neuroimaging, psychophysiology, and immunology to understand how stress and adversity shape brain circuits underlying emotion and behavior during adolescence.

Education:

• Ph.D. in Psychology, University of California, San Diego
• B.A. in Cognitive Science, University of California, Berkeley
• Postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinical Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco
• Postdoctoral Training in Affective Science, Stanford University

Research Interests:
Dr. Ho’s research focuses on understanding how brain circuits underlying thoughts, emotions, and behaviors change during adolescent development. She investigates how experiences of adversity and perceptions of stress shape neurodevelopment, and how these changes impact the etiology, course, and treatment of depression. Her lab uses a multimodal approach, including behavioral, cognitive, endocrine, immune, and neuroimaging techniques, and leverages big data and global initiatives to identify robust brain imaging markers associated with depression and related conditions.

Grants and Funding:
Her research has been generously funded by the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health.

Publications and Impact:
Dr. Ho has published extensively in high-impact journals, with over 100 peer-reviewed articles. Her recent work includes studies on the effects of COVID-19 on adolescent mental health, the role of inflammation in depression, and the use of machine learning to classify major depressive disorder using neuroimaging data. She is also a key contributor to the ENIGMA consortium, a global initiative aimed at understanding brain alterations in psychiatric disorders.