Principal Investigator: Marco Venniro

Marco received a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Palermo in 2012. He was then accepted into the NIH Graduate Partnership Program. Following a 2-year fellowship at the National Institute on Drug Abuse Marco received his Ph.D. in translational biomedicine from the University of Verona in 2016. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Yavin Shaham in 2020. He joined the University of Maryland School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurobiology in 2021 and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2025.  

Marco is interested in behavior and translational research with a focus on the social component of neuropsychiatric disorders. He is particularly interested in understanding how alternative nondrug rewards can be used to control and treat drug addiction with a focus on social reward. 

Postdoctoral fellow: Sophia Weber

Sophia joined the Venniro lab as a postdoctoral fellow in July of 2024. Sophia graduated from University of Washington in 2017 with a BS in Biology. During her undergraduate career she worked as first a volunteer then a lab technician in Dr. Jeremy Clark’s lab investigating the effect of adolescent alcohol exposure on adult decision making. After graduation she started a postbaccalaureate internship in the NIDA IRP program, working in the lab of Dr. Bruce Hope assisting postdoctoral fellow Rajtarun Madangopal on his various projects that sought to selectively study and manipulate active neurons during drug related behaviors. Sophia then joined the Behavior and Systems Neuroscience graduate program at Oregon Health & Science University. She worked in the lab of Dr. Marina Wolf investigating the role of dopamine in the incubation of cocaine craving using fiber photometry and behavioral pharmacology. She received her Ph.D. in June of 2024.

Sophia’s long-term research interest is in how the brain encodes learning at the synaptic as well as systems level, particularly maladaptive learning that leads to substance use disorder, using translationally relevant preclinical models. In Dr. Venniro’s lab Sophia will pair her experience in in vivo recording with Dr. Venniro’s social volitional abstinence model, in which rodents choose to abstain from drugs of abuse in favor of social interaction, to investigate how alternative rewards alter drug seeking and underlying circuits.

Postdoctoral fellow: Nana Baidoo

Nana joined the Venniro Lab as a postdoctoral fellow in January 2025. He earned a B.Sc. in Psychology from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, where he built a strong foundation in human behavior. After graduation, he worked as a Research Assistant in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Cape Coast School of Medicine, contributing to clinical research on mental health and addiction.
Driven by a deep interest in the neuropsychology of addiction, Nana completed his graduate studies at the University of Guelph in 2024 under the mentorship of Dr. Francesco Leri, focusing on the neurobiology of memory modulation by drug withdrawal.
In the Venniro Lab, Nana will examine how drug withdrawal affects social motivation and the role of the extended amygdala. He is also exploring the role of stress systems in prosocial behavior and how they influence the ability of prosocial behaviors to modulate drug-related responses.
Outside of research, Nana is a passionate soccer enthusiast and a dedicated philanthropist, running a foundation in Ghana that supports community-based initiatives.

Graduate Student: Kimberly Papastrat

Kim joined Venniro Lab at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2021, initially as a Laboratory Research Assistant and then as a Graduate Student. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2016, Kim joined the laboratory of Dr. Linda Spear at Binghamton University. She remained there from 2016 through 2020 contributing to ethanol-focused behavioral neuroscience research.

Kim’s research interests are based on the underlying neural circuitry and molecular mechanisms regulating drug addiction regarding different substances of abuse. Her focus in the Venniro Lab will involve exploring the role of sensory system on social behavior and incubation of drug craving leading to relapse.

Graduate Student: Sissi Zhengyi Huang

Sissi joined the Program in Neuroscience at the University of Maryland School of Medicine as a graduate student in 2022 and the Venniro Lab in 2023 as a PhD student. She received her undergraduate degree in psychology from UCLA and master's degree in experimental psychology from the University of Chicago under the mentorship of Dr. Harriet de Wit. After graduating, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Emma Childs at University of Illinois Chicago where she researched sex differences in drug effects. 

Sissi is very interested in translational research, and is hoping to use her human behavioral pharmacology background to investigate individual differences in susceptibility to addiction. 

Graduate Student: Amanda Pacheco-Spiewak

Amanda joined the Program in Neuroscience at the University of Maryland School of Medicine as a PhD student in 2022 after receiving her BA in Psychology from Florida International University in 2019. After graduation, she went on to work at the University of Miami where she studied the analgesic efficacy of distinct cannabis components for the treatment of neuropathic pain.

Amanda joined the Venniro Lab in 2023 and is interested in studying aberrant neural circuitry underlying psychiatric disorders. She is particularly interested in exploring the neuroprotective effects of social behavior and psychedelics in disorders such as PTSD and addiction.

Lab Research Assistant: Naru Kang

Naru joined the Venniro lab at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2024. She received her BS in Biological Sciences and Psychology from UMCP in 2023, during which she worked under the mentorship of Dr. Donna Calu and Dr. Matthew Roesch. Her past neuroscience research focuses on the neural mechanisms that drive learning, executive control, and decision-making, as well as factors that may perturb these circuits such as addiction.

Naru is interested in the neuroscience and psychology behind substance use disorder, and hopes to pursue a career in medicine in her future.

Lab Volunteer: Shannon Kirk

Shannon Joined the Venniro lab in the summer of 2025 as a volunteer to further her knowledge of addiction research. She received her BS in Biology and Psychology from St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2020 where her research interest began while completing a senior capstone project studying the impact of adolescent binge drinking on anxiety and neurodegeneration. Following graduation, she started a research assistant position at Johns Hopkins studying cognition and executive function in perinatal brain injury models. 

Most recently, Shannon has been a research assistant in the Yuan lab at the University of Maryland Baltimore, studying the impact of vascular endothelial growth factors in lung injury models. For her long-term research interest, Shannonaims to expand her understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms in addiction and the impact social behavior poses on addiction models.

MiNDS Scholar: Makayla Anfuson

Makayla is a rising fourth-year student at the University of Maryland, College Park, majoring in Hearing and Speech Sciences with a minor in Neuroscience. She joined the Venniro Lab in 2025 as a MiNDS Scholar. Previously, she conducted research under the mentorship of Dr. Mary Kay Lobo and Dr. Melissa Caras. Her research interests include the effects of drug use on sensory systems, ototoxicity, addiction-related neural networks, and pharmacology.

Makayla plans to pursue a PhD in neuroscience and is passionate about building community within the African diaspora to promote community-building in the field.

Philosopher-in-Residence: Hanna Pickard (BA Hons, BPhil, DPhil)

Hanna is Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University, cross-appointed to the William H. Miller III Department of Philosophy and the Berman Institute of Bioethics, and with a secondary appointment to the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, she held a Chair in Philosophy of Psychology at the University of Birmingham UK and was a Visiting Research Scholar to Princeton University's Program in Cognitive Science as well as a Fellow of All Souls College at the University of Oxford. She is also a Volunteer Faculty Professor at University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Department Neurobiology, where she collaborates with the Venniro Lab.

In addition to her academic work, Hanna worked for a decade as an Assistant Team Therapist at the Oxford Health NHS Trust Oxfordshire Complex Needs Service, a specialist service for people with personality disorders and complex needs. Her interest in addiction grew out of this clinical experience and aims to integrate social, psychological, and philosophical perspectives with animal models and neuroscience. She is currently writing a book about addiction under contract with Princeton University Press.