Our Team
Sahib S. Khalsa, MD, PhD
Associate Professor in Residence
Director of Anxiety Disorders Research
Director, UCLA Healthy Hearts Behavioral Medicine Program
Louis Jolyon West Innovation Chair
Dr. Khalsa is an Associate Professor in Residence in the Psychiatry Department at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine and holds the Louis Jolyon West Innovation Chair at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. He is a physician-scientist whose research uses experimental medicine approaches to examine heart-brain and gut-brain interactions in anxiety and eating disorders, combining pharmacological stimulation with brain imaging, EEG, and computational modeling. His clinical specialty is focused on treatment of anxiety and stress-related disorders, and he is the founding Director of the UCLA Healthy Hearts Behavioral Medicine Program, an interdisciplinary endeavor with the UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center. He is an Affiliate Investigator at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research.
MD, PhD (Neuroscience) — University of Iowa, 2009
Psychiatry Residency (Chief Resident) — UCLA, 2009–2013
BS Psychology magna cum laude — SUNY Stony Brook, 2002
Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (2013–present)
- Lab Website
- CV
- Email: skhalsa@mednet.ucla.edu
Meet Our Team
Fylaktis Fylaktou, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar (2025–present)
Investigating how the brain and body communicate to regulate emotion and behavior, with a particular emphasis on gut–brain interoceptive signaling in anorexia nervosa and disorders of gut–brain interaction, combiningsignal processing, cardiac and autonomic measures, and machine learning to uncover physiological biomarkers and advance computational approaches to psychiatric diagnosis and treatment.
Aleksandr Talishinsky, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Rotation Scholar (2024–present)
UCLA Internal Residency Physician Scientist Track
Investigating the neural and physiological mechanisms underlying cardiovascular function and disease, particularly how brain–body interactions shape cardiovascular regulation, with the goal of improving diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular and related neuropsychiatric conditions.
Charles Verdonk, MD, PhD (2021–2024)
Investigator, French Armed Forces (IRBA)
Investigating the neural and computational mechanisms underlying perception, cognition, and behavior, with a particular emphasis on how brain systems encode and integrate sensory and internal signals, to understand how these processes contribute to adaptive decision-making and their dysregulation in neuropsychiatric or neurological conditions.
Emily Choquette, PhD (2021–2023)
Associate Investigator, Laureate Institute for Brain Research
Elucidating the mechanisms of body image disturbance in eating disorders, with an emphasis on the role of interoception using multimodal approaches spanning behavioral, self-report, neuroimaging, and experimental methods, to translate these insights into improved treatments through interventions such as Floatation-REST and digital mental health tools that enhance clinical assessment, patient insight, and therapeutic outcomes.
Adam Teed, PhD (2019–2022)
Chief Operating Officer/Co-founder, Sama Therapeutics
Developing and applying digital biomarkers and neuroimaging approaches to understand interoception and its role in affective disorders and psychopharmacology, leveraging fMRI and computational tools to bridge brain–body signaling with clinical applications in mental health and therapeutic development.
Paul Dallaghan, PhD (2026)
Visiting Researcher
Coming Soon
Graduate Students
Amir Vala Tavakoli
(2016–Present, Bioengineering, UCLA)
Rachel Lapidus, PhD
(2015–2021, Clinical Psychology, Univ. of Tulsa) — now Clinical Asst. Professor, Children’s Mercy Hospital
Emily Adamic, PhD
(2020–2024, Biological Sciences, Univ. of Tulsa)
McKenna Garland, PhD
(2020–2024, Clinical Psychology, Univ. of Tulsa)
Undergraduate Students and Volunteers
Aurabelle Quinn
Undergraduate Student (2025–present)
Coming Soon
Diya Madhavan
Undergraduate Student (2026–present)
Alumni
Postdoctoral
Charles Verdonk (→ IRBA France)
Emily Choquette (→ LIBR)
Adam Teed (→ Sama Therapeutics)
Christina Ralph-Nearman (→ U of Louisville)
Maria Puhl (→ Statistica/TIBCO)
Mahlega Hassanpour (→ U of Utah)
Graduate Students
Rachel Lapidus (→ Children’s Mercy Hospital KC)
Danielle DeVille (→ UCSD Eating Disorders Program)
McKenna Garland (University of Minnesota)
Emily Adamic (Bike Club Tulsa)
Other Trainees & Volunteers
Name | Year | Subsequent Position |
| Nahal Sabrkhani, BA | 2012-2013 | Master’s Student, UCLA Master’s in Public Health |
| Vandan Patel | 2013-2014 | Medical Student, University of California-Riverside |
| Sarah Rind, BS | 2015-2016 | PhD Student, Behavioral Neuroscience, Boston University |
| Eric Breese, BS | 2016-2018 | Medical Student, University of Oklahoma |
| Austin Lignieres, BS | 2016-2017 | Medical Student, University of Texas-Austin |
| Rachel Thun, BA | 2016 | Master’s Student |
| Audrey Stromberg | 2016 | Bachelor’s Degree, Yale University |
| Sheridan Chappelle, BS | 2016-2020 | Medical Student, University of California-San Diego |
| Olivia Shadid, MD | 2016 | Psychiatry Residency, University of New Mexico |
| Rachel Wirginis, DO | 2016 | Family Medicine Residency, Oklahoma City |
| Alexandra Weindel, BS | 2018 | Medical Student, Oklahoma State University |
| Gregory Morrissey, BS | 2019 | Medical Doctor, University College Dublin, Ireland |
| Megan Sinik, BS | 2018-19 | Medical Student, University of Iowa |
| Katie Baker, BS | 2020-2021 | Medical School Applicant |
| Ann Marie Flusche, BS | 2019-2020 | Medical School Applicant |
| Jessyca Naegele, BS | 2020-2021 | Medical Student, University of Oklahoma |
| Michael Flux Caruso, PhD | 2021-2023 | Consultant, Psybin Inc. |
| MacGregor Thomas, BS | 2020-2023 | Medical Student, University of Oklahoma |
| Gabriel Morrison | 2021-2023 | Medical School Applicant |
| Alexa Morton | 2021-2023 | Master’s Student, School of Social Work, Baylor University |
| Gregory Morrissey, MBBS | 2022-2023 | Psychiatry Resident, University of Kansas |
| Aurabelle Quinn | 2025-present | Undergraduate Student, UCLA |
Research Collaborators
Martin Paulus, MD
Scientific Director, Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR), Tulsa OK
Justin Feinstein, PhD
Float Research Collective (Maui, HI)
Olujimi Ajijola, MD, PhD
UCLA Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology
Charles Verdonk, MD, PhD
Institut de Recherche Biomédicale des Armées (IRBA), France
Galia Avidan, PhD
Ben Gurion University
Ryan Smith, PhD
LIBR
René Hurlemann, MD, PhD, MBA
University of Bonn
Laura Berner, PhD
Mount Sinai
Jamie Feusner, MD
University of Toronto
Emily Choquette, PhD
LIBR
Robin Aupperle, PhD
LIBR
Nicco Reggente, PhD
IACS
Bridgette Callaghan, PhD
UCLA Department of Psychology
Jennifer Sumner, PhD
UCLA Department of Psychology
Lin Chang, MD
UCLA Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology
Arpana Church, PhD
UCLA Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology
Jack Feldman, PhD
UCLA Department of Neurobiology