Executive Board

Menghuan Chen is a Doctoral Researcher in the project B1 under supervision of Prof. Pauli and Prof. Pittig.

During her PhD, she will work on approach-avoidance conflicts related to impulsive versus reflective processes using biopsychological methods and neuroimaging techniques (i.e., fMRI).

Before starting her PhD, she studied Cognitive Neuroscience in Sino-Danish College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and conducted research focusing on addiction disorders with methods of virtual reality, eye-tracking, EEG and machine learning.

Francesco Tortora is a PhD researcher under the supervision of Prof. Andreatta. 

Zora Schickardt is a doctoral researcher in the Cell Culture and Biomarkers Research Group at the Center of Mental Health and joins the RTG2660 as an associated PhD student. In her PhD project, she investigates mitochondrial function in cell models of PARK2 copy number variant carriers with adult Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In a previous study, the evaluation of the cellular phenotype of human dermal fibroblast and dopaminergic neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells revealed impaired energy metabolism and hints for mitochondrial dysfunction in ADHD/PARK2 CNVs carriers compared to wildtype controls. Based on this, she will conduct further analyses of mitochondrial alterations in ADHD-related cell types such as cortical neurons and blood-brain barrier endothelia to validate mitochondrial dysfunction as a potential target for novel therapies and to investigate a possible role of BBB dysfunction in ADHD. Besides her research, she enjoys being in nature and relaxing on the banks of the Main.