Invited Speaker

Anne Andrews is Professor of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences and Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a member of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, the Hatos Center for Neuropharmacology, and the California NanoSystems Institute. Andrews received her B.S. from the Pennsylvania State University and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the American University as a U.S. Department of Education Fellow. She was a pre-doctoral, postdoctoral, and senior staff fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health.

Dr. Andrews is an elected Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and past President of the International Society for Serotonin Research. She received an NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award, a California Neurotechnologies Research Award, and an IUPAC Distinguished Women in Chemistry Award, among others. Her groundbreaking advances led the BRAIN Initiative technology development and measurements of chemical signaling.

At UCLA, Andrews advances basic and translational research at the nexus of neuroscience and nanoscience. Her interdisciplinary team of chemists, neuroscientists, and engineers seeks to understand how neurotransmitters like serotonin encode emotionally salient information related to anxiety, mood, and stress responsiveness. Electronic field-effect transistors (FETs), electrochemical sensors, and machine learning are used to investigate neurotransmission at high resolution in animal models and patient populations. Andrews also develops wearable sensors for stress (cortisol) and other biomarkers to advance personalized predictive medicine and improve health and wellness.