Mehdi, a 2018 CCB Fellow, is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Section on Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology and Neuropsychopharmacology (CPN), a joint laboratory of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). As a CCB Fellow, Mehdi will study the role of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and its pharmacotherapeutic implications in relation to compulsive alcohol use. This exploration relates to his overall postdoctoral research goal to identify novel targets to treat alcohol use disorder via a combination of behavioral, pharmacological, genetic, and neuroimaging methods. He is also interested in investigating human laboratory approaches that may best translate preclinical findings into clinical research, with a particular focus on behavioral pharmacology and substance use.
Mehdi received his medical degree from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, where he also got trained as a researcher by studying the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders such as depression and schizophrenia, and testing potential medications for these disorders through phase 2-3 clinical trials.