Meet the Team

Karmiella Ferster | Clinical Research Coordinator

Long Island native Karmiella Ferster graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with a Bachelor’s degree in Developmental Psychology and a double minor in Creative Writing and Art Therapy. She worked with Dr. Yvette Harris’ research in self-efficacy, Theory of Mind, and creative thinking in school-aged minority parent-child dyads. In graduate school, Karmiella volunteered in Dr. Kimberly Noble’s lab, exploring EEG and MRI data on infants and cortisol data on adults, while continuing her interest in how parental self-efficacy can set the path for a child’s development. Karmiella received her Master’s degree in Developmental Psychology in 2021 from Teachers College, Columbia University. After graduation, Karmiella joined Dr. Parvaz’s lab. This experience continues to expand upon her interest in Theory of Mind but now in older populations, specifically in adults with psychosis. In her free time, Karmiella plays video games, creates art, and writes fiction.

Email: karmiella.ferster@mssm.edu

Rachel Heisler | Clinical Research Coordinator 

Rachel joined the MAP Lab in June of 2024 as a Clinical Research Coordinator. She graduated from Emory University with a Bachelor’s degree, double majoring in Psychology and Human Health. Rachel got her Masters of Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health with a certificate Health and Human Rights. Rachel’s previous work experience focuses on mental health and academic advocacy for children. When not in the lab, Rachel enjoys reading, walking, yoga, going to museums, traveling, trying new foods, going to Broadway shows, and watching Philadelphia sports teams (Go Birds).

Email: rachel.heisler@mssm.edu

Tarik Bel-Bahar | Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Bel-Bahar is an experimental psychologist focused on brain dynamics associated with cognitive, 
affective, and motivational processes related to substance use disorder and treatment. He earned his 
doctorate at the University of Oregon, and has held post-doctoral research positions at University of 
California San Diego, Duke University, University of Michigan, and the New York State Psychiatric 
Institute. Dr. Bel-Bahar works primarily with electroencephalography (EEG) from typical, pediatric, and 
psychiatric populations. His past research includes EEG studies of cognitive-perceptual performance, 
affective experience and regulation, and altered states of consciousness with ketamine and in shamanic 
practitioners. He is currently examining the predictive and prognostic utility of EEG-derived metrics in 
substance use disorder and treatment, and has methodological interests in replicable analytic pipelines, 
neural oscillations, and indexes of brain network function and connectivity. When not engaged with 
research his hobbies include yoga, cinema, hiking, and reading books. 

Email: tarik.bel-bahar@mssm.edu

Riaz Shaik | Postdoctoral Fellow

Riaz earned his medical degree (MBBS) in India, and his PhD in Bioinformatics from Rutgers University. He is jointly supervised by Dr. Cheryl Corcoran, Program Leader in Psychosis Risk and by Dr. Muhammad Parvaz, Director of the Motivational and Affective Psychopathologies (MAP) Lab. His research focuses on identifying biomarkers using EEG that are predictive of onset of psychotic symptoms and substance use disorders. Given his clinical background, he is interested in translating laboratory techniques to clinical settings to assist in preventive psychiatry. Riaz enjoys hiking in his free time, and is enthusiastic about trying new cultural cuisines.

Email: riaz.shaik@mssm.edu

Faith Adams | PhD Student

Faith is a third-year PhD candidate in Mount Sinai’s Neuroscience PhD program. Faith is interested in characterizing potential phenotypes associated with alcohol initiation and escalation in adolescents. Her current work uses novel data integration approaches to optimally analyze a multitude of plausible risk factors of early alcohol use from environmental, clinical, individual and neurobehavioral domains. Outside of lab, Faith is involved in organizations that she is passionate about like Mount Sinai’s Health Policy Program, and the National Science Policy Network. Through these organizations and her research, she hopes that she will be prepared to pursue a career in science policy where she can use her expertise to contribute to evidence-based policies. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, powerlifting, reading crime/thriller novels, binge watching Netflix shows. 

Email: faith.adams@icahn.mssm.edu 

Lauren Lepow | PhD Student

Lauren is a third-year psychiatry resident at Mount Sinai in the NIMH-supported PhD+ neuroscience track. Lauren’s research interests are in the field of PTSD and include neuroimaging and investigating the neural mechanisms underlying psychedelic-assisted-psychotherapy. Her clinical interests are wide but recently include neuropsychoanalysis and holistic approaches to healing trauma. Lauren’s graduate school studies are in both the MAP lab and Rachel Yehuda’s lab which studies the neurobiology of PTSD at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx.

Studying neuroscience and behavior for her undergraduate degree at Columbia University, this passion to understand the mechanics of the mind and brain pulled her in many directions including to the New York Presbyterian neurosurgery department in the lab of Dr. Guy McKhann, studying the effect of chronic stress on oxytocin receptors with Dr. Frances Champagne. When she returned to Houston to attend McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas, she continued her work in the field of Alzheimer’s with her life-long mentor, Dr. Paul Schulz. She has also spent time at the NIMH in the Experimental Therapeutics & Pathophysiology Branch studying the mechanism of ketamine for treatment-resistant depression with Dr. Carlos Zarate.

Lauren enjoys biking around NYC, immersive theatre, high-intensity-interval training and exploring the world with her husband.

Email: lauren.lepow@icahn.mssm.edu

Anantha Ramakrishnan | PhD Student

Ananth is a PhD student of Bioinformatics at Rutgers University, and is working on his dissertation in MAPlab under Dr. Parvaz’s supervision. His work focuses on novel applications of computational models of reinforcement learning to examine reward-related learning in adolescents and adults, and changes associated with substance use. He is also a seasoned data architect and is involved in the structuring of data systems for the lab. He received his Master’s degree in mathematics, computer applications, and finance management.

Outside of the lab, Ananth is a full-time data management consultant focusing on Health data integration, organization, advanced data analytics, and data-driven digital health and wellness. Early years at work, Ananth applied and programmed advanced mathematical models to solve critical industry problems. During his master’s, Ananth has worked under the mentorship of Dr. M.A Gopalan on number theory. He has published works on applying concepts of Vedic mathematics, (Brahma Gupta Lemmas) in solving higher order Diophantine Equations, a modified version of Fermat’s Last Theorem and Pythagorean Triangles. Ananth enjoys traveling and coaches his daughter’s soccer team in his free time.

Email: anantha.ramakrishnan@mssm.edu

Nancy Zhang | PhD Student  

Nancy is a second year PhD student in Biomedical Sciences with a training area in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies (AIET) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She received her BS degree in Mathematics and Statistics from UCLA in 2023. She has done research on various cross-disciplinary fields including the application of deep learning in materials science engineering, computer vision, bioinformatics, and genomics. She is passionate about bringing AI to the field of psychiatry and healthcare to advance our understanding and enhance the quality of healthcare technologies. In the lab, she mainly works on developing computational models for predicting interventional and clinical outcomes across substance use disorders with multimodal data. In her free time, she enjoys exploring New York City, playing ukulele and piano, and creating music.

Email: nancy.zhang@icahn.mssm.edu

Siddhartha Peri | Rotation Student 

Siddhartha joined the MAP Lab August of 2022 as a Masters student. She studied Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, worked in a synthetic biology lab where she did research on novel plasmid construction methods publishing in Nature, a materials lab developing novel hydrogen fuel cells for use in car batteries, a bee research lab aimed at understanding the social behaviors of bee colonies through genetic and molecular analyses, and collaborated with Rutgers faculty publishing a systematic review of the effectiveness of telemedicine infrastructure for neonatal and maternal healthcare in underserved populations in India. She is currently involved in a project aimed at tracking neurobiological recovery following opioid use treatment and predicting relapse in individuals with opioid use disorder as well as analyzing existing neuroimaging data sets across different for interesting and significant insights. Her favorite food is kumpir, a Turkish baked potato with an eclectic assortment of vegetables and spices. Siddhartha plans on doing an MD/PhD in the future along neuropsychiatric research.

Email: siddhartha.peri@icahn.mssm.edu 

Areeb Siddiqui | Research Volunteer  

Areeb Siddiqui joined MAP lab as volunteer researcher in September 2023. He is currently a sophomore pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a concentration in Neuroscience at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, with aspirations of entering an MD program. Areeb’s previous research involves the data collection of microbes within the New York City transit system in order to create high-resolution maps of the genetic dynamics of the subway system. He also has previous experience as a pharmacy technician. Areeb is currently a volunteer tutor at Learn it Together, an educational nonprofit focused on bridging academic gaps for underprivileged students. In his free time, he enjoys playing basketball and football.

Email: areeb.siddiqui@mssm.edu 

Karan Lingineni  | Research Volunteer  

Karan is a first-year MS candidate in Mount Sinai’s Clinical Research program and a Research Assistant planning to do his thesis in Parvaz Lab. Additionally, he is currently a Cloud Architect at Kyndryl (previously IBM Global Technology Services). Prior to Mount Sinai, he received BA degrees in Computer Science and Neurobiology from UC Berkeley in 2022. His past career experiences and future research motivations lie in the growing convergence of cloud computing and machine learning with medical informatics, drug discovery, and whole-slide image classification. Karan previously held positions at Roche Pharmaceuticals, developing non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumor classification CV pipelines, and Amazon, creating Graph Neural Network MVPs for client institutions attempting research in preventing chemotherapeutic side effects based on a patient’s multi-omics data. Karan’s long-term goal is to apply for the upcoming MD/PhD cycle and develop his fundamental medical knowledge further to become a more impactful innovator/researcher within bio-design. Outside of school and work, Karan enjoys playing guitar, listening to classic rock, and keeping up with the NBA season in his free time.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kling111/

Kaesha Bowers  | Research Volunteer  

Kaesha joined MAP Lab in November 2023 as a Master’s in Clinical Research student working on her thesis. At MAP Lab, she is studying the interactions of HIV in male methamphetamine users. Kaesha is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor at a private practice where she practices CBT. She has been practicing for over 10 years, and continues to see clients for individual, couples, and family therapy/counseling. While attending Mount Sinai, Kaesha has been a teacher’s assistant for a Qualitative Research course. She assists in the facilitation of focus groups for older adults with coronary artery disease. As well, she coordinates a qualitative research project pertaining to a specific tool used to assess substance use in prenatal and postpartum women. Kaesha’s future endeavors is to achieve further education in research within the field of neuroscience and pathology. When not studying or working, Kaesha enjoys watching cartoons, playing video games, and learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Email: kaesha.bowers@icahn.mssm.edu

Armaan Dullat  | Student Volunteer  

Armaan joined the MAP Lab as a volunteer in June 2024. He is a sophomore in a BS/MD program with The College of New Jersey and New Jersey Medical School currently pursuing a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemistry. Armaan’s previous research experiences included exploring the specificity of metalloenzymes with alternative substrates and properties not before seen in scientific literature and modeling chemical interactions between various species to better understand the mechanisms of protein tyrosine phosphatases. He is taking a gap year to gain research and tutoring experience, in addition to self-studying languages. Armaan enjoys cooking, hiking, and traveling in his free time. 

Email: armaan.dullat@mssm.edu

Jackie Curtin  | Student Volunteer  

Jackie joined MAP Lab in May 2024. She is a sophomore studying Applied Psychology at New York University. She is on the premed track and hopes to pursue an MD with plans to become a psychiatrist. MAP lab will be Jackie’s first experience with research. At MAP lab she will help recruit participants for a study on cue-reactivity in people seeking treatment for Methamphetamine Use Disorder. In her free time, Jackie enjoys playing video games, trying new food, and crafting.

Email: jacqueline.curtin@mssm.edu

Annabelle Peterson | Student Volunteer  

Annabelle joined the MAP Laboratory in July 2024 as a rising senior in high school focused on pursuing neuroscience. She is excited about to learn more about neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI and EEG and how they map out cognitive-affective interactions present in mental health disorders. Annabelle spent her last year interning at the American Museum of Natural History under a post doc in the Astrophysics department where she researched complex rotators and learned how to code with Python. Aside from her passion for science, Annabelle enjoys reading and writing, playing piano and running. 

Email: annahelen17@icloud.com 

Ty Bell | Student Volunteer  

Ty joined the MAP Lab as a volunteer in July 2024. He is currently a rising senior at Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics and a part of CEYE’s Lloyd Sherman Scholar Program at Mount Sinai. In this program Ty took coursework covering college level biochemistry, cellular biology and molecular biology and which ultimately led to his research placement at the MAP Lab from the summer to end of senior year. Ty wishes to pursue the pre-med track with the end goal of becoming a psychiatrist. In the MAP lab, Ty has researched many different instruments used in clinical research, compiled locations of different mental health providers throughout New York City and presented a poster of his research covering the effects of COVID-19 on media use in different age groups at the Museum of Natural History. Ty in his free time also enjoys listening to music, running, and trying new foods.

Email: ty.bell@mssm.edu

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ty-bell-5732822b7/