Neuroscience Career Opportunities and Marketable Skills

The Neuroscience discipline of the Integrated Biomedical Sciences Program has an 89% completion rate to degree, with an average time to degree of about 5.2 years. After graduation, nearly all of our trainees obtain high-quality, research-intensive post-doctoral positions at major research universities. Of 25 graduates in the past 10 years, 20 obtained post-docs at universities such as Emory, Harvard, LSU, Pitt, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Utah, UC Davis, Colorado, USAISR, etc.) and 3 who were M.D./Ph.D. students entered residency.

After completing their post-doc, our graduates have many options, including becoming a lab director/PI at an academic institution, pharmaceutical or biotech company, or government research facility (e.g., NIH).  Other career paths include university teaching, academic administration, patent law, scientific publishing, government work in science policy, and management in businesses related to scientific or medical products.

Marketable Skills

The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is proud to partner with the Texas Higher Education Board in helping students develop and build on skills employers value and seek out in job candidates.

PhD in Integrated Biomedical Sciences:

1. Management of Existing Research Data & Information
Identify, evaluate, integrate and interpret large quantities of information applicable to a given problem from multiple sources including the scientific literature and relevant databases.
 
2. Project Development & Successful Execution
Manage a research endeavor from intellectual conceptualization to successful timely completion.

3. Analysis & Problem-Solving
Identify and define gaps in scientific knowledge; and then gather information from across the biomedical sciences to synthesize experimental approaches for testing hypotheses designed to fill those gaps. 

4. Professional Collaboration
Identify opportunities to collaborate with others to strengthen experimental strategies for achieving common goals.

5. Effective Work Habits
Work with minimum supervision toward research goals and satisfying other program requirements; develop time-management and organizational skills that allow “multi-tasking” and to meet deadlines.

6. Oral Communication
Present effectively, in various venues, complex research problems and solutions to audiences of varied levels of experience and expertise.

7. Defense of Ideas - Oral
Develop oral skills of debating ideas based on scientific facts so as to defend particular interpretations and conclusions.

8. Written Communication
Write clear concise descriptions of research problems, experimental design and results so as to effectively support interpretations and conclusions.

The Office of Career Development

UT Health San Antonio graduate students have access to the GSBS Office of Career Development (OCD). The OCD provides career and professional development training opportunities including individual meetings/career counseling, workshops & seminars. The OCD also works with the Graduate School’s Career Advisory Council and provides career exploration talks. The OCD provides graduate students a framework to discover next steps in their career along with resources to encourage and prepare graduate students for the future.

Neuroscience Alumni

David A. Price

Defense Date: March 2007
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Andrea Giuffrida, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Neuroprotective Effects of Cannabinoids in a Mouse Model of Parkinson's Disease'
Current Position: Consultant - Urology and Men's Health Medical Liaisons; Lilly USA, LLC

David Petrik, Ph.D.

Defense Date: 2008
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Robert Brenner, Ph.D.
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow at UT Southwestern, Department of Psychiatry, with Dr. Emilia Eisch

Zach Johnson, Ph.D.

Defense Date: 2009
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Robin Leach, Ph.D. and Jeff Rogers, Ph.D.
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow with Drs. Mark Wilson and Jim Thomas at Emory University, Yerkes Primate Center, and Human Genetics

Nicole Baganz, Ph.D.

Defense Date: 2009
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Lyn Daws, Ph.D.
Current Position: Director of Community Engagement and Programming, FAU Brain Institute Research and Assistant Professor, Biomedical Science, Florida Atlantic University

Corina Bondi, Ph.D.

Defense Date: 2009
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: David Morilak, Ph.D.
Dissertation: Chronic-Stress Induced Alterations in Noradrenergic Modulation of Cognition in Prefrontal Cortex
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh with Dr. Anthony Kline

Alpa Khatri, Ph.D.

Defense Date: 2010
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: David Weiss, Ph.D.
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Pharmacology at Emory University with Dr. Stephen Traynelis

Jacob Garza, Ph.D.

Defense Date: 2010
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Xin-Yun Lu, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Leptin Signaling Regulates Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis'
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard Medical School

Michelle Baladi, Ph.D.

Defense Date: 2010
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Charles France, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Impact of Feeding Condition on Sensitivity of Rats to Drugs Acting on Dopamine Systems'
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. Annette Fleckenstein at the University of Utah School of Medicine

Ha (Truong) Furmaga, Ph.D.

Defense Date: 2011
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Alan Frazer, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Behavioral and Neurochemical Effects on Vagal Nerve Stimulation in Rats'
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Neuroscience at the Center for Neurological Restoration, Cleveland Clinic with Dr. Andre Machado

Matthew Rowan, Ph.D.

Defense Date: 2011
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Bill Clarke, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Estrogen Regulation of Bradykinin Signaling'
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow at US Army Institute of Surgical Research & Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at Northwest Vista College, Trinity University and St. Mary's University

Nikita Ruparel, Ph.D.

Defense Date: 2011
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Ken Hargreaves, D.D.S., Ph.D.
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Endodontics, Loma Linda University Dental School, Loma Linda, CA.

Jie Zhang, D.D.S., Ph.D.

Defense Date: 2011
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Mark Shapiro, Ph.D.
Current Position: Transitional Postdoctoral Fellow at UT Health San Antonio

Joseph Walch

Defense Date: July 2012
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: J. Thomas Cunningham, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Subfornical Organ Angiotensin Type 1 Receptor Expression and Drinking Beahvior in Bile Duct Ligated Animals'
Current Position: Anesthesiology Resident, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C.

Elaine Por

Defense Date: November, 2012
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Nathaniel Jeske, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'β-arrestin-2 mediates TRPV1 desensitization'
Current Position: US Army Biochemist, Ocular Trauma Division, US Army Institute of Surgical Research

Yu Tao, Ph.D.

Defense Date: 2012
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: David Weiss, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Chronic stress animal model of depression'
Current Position: MS/PhD student, Biostatistics, UTSA

Margaux Salas, Ph.D.

Defense Date: 2012
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Ken Hargeaves, D.D.S., Ph.D.
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio, TX.

Margaret Wey, Ph.D.

Defense Date: March 2012
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: J. Randy Strong, Ph.D
Dissertation: 'Deficient aldehyde detoxification in the nigrostriatal pathway: a potential animal model for parkinson’s disease'
Current Position:Clinical Trials Pharmacist, Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Pharmacy

Alexandra Soto-Pina, Ph.D.

Defense Date: November 2012
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: J. Randy Strong, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Does the peripheral sympathetic nervous system contribute to hypertension induced by chronic dexamethasone treatment?'
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Facultad de Medicina

David Medina, Ph.D.

Defense Date: June 2013
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Salvatore Oddo, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Molecular Mechanisms Underlying TDP-43 Proteinopathies'
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Barrow Neurological Institute

Alex Martinez, Ph.D.

Defense Date: January 2014
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Andrea Giuffrida, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Cannabinoid and Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptors as Anti-dyskinetic Targets'
Current Position: Visiting Assistant Professor (Full-time), Trinity University and Postdoctoral Fellow (Part-time), University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Jennifer Donegan, Ph.D.

Defense Date: March 2014
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: David Morilak, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'IL-6 facilitates reversal learning in the orbitofrontal cortex of rats'
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Stephanie Perez, Ph.D.

Defense Date: March 2014
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Daniel Lodge, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'The Hippocampus as a Site of Intervention for the Treatment of Schizophrenia'
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Aparna Shah, Ph.D.

Defense Date: April 2014
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Alan Frazer, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Mechanisms underlying the antidepressant and anxiolytic effects of Vagal Nerve Stimulation (VNS): comparison with desipramine'
Current Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University

Teresa Evans, Ph.D.

Defense Date: April 2014
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: James Lechleiter, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Traumatic Brain Injury and the Development of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis'
Current Position: Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Jillian Heisler, Ph.D.

Defense Date: June 2014
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Jason O'Connor, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'A Pathogenic Role for Kynurenine Metabolism in Prefrontal Cortex-mediated Depressive Symptoms'
Current Position: Neurologist, Houston Methodist Institute 

Julianne Jett, Ph.D.

Defense Date: November 2015
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: David Morilak, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Noradrenergic modulation of glutamate in the medial prefrontal cortex: A potential mechanism for stress-induced cognitive deficits'
Current Position: Community Leader, American Red Cross 

Jennifer Parrott, Ph.D., IMGP Neuroscience

Defense Date: March 26, 2016
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Jason O’Connor, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Inflammation-induced depressive-like behaviors: influence of kynurenine metabolism and brain-derived neurotrophic factor'
Current Position: 2016 –, Post-doc, UC Davis Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science, Jacqueline Crawley PhD, mentor

David Aguilar, Ph.D., IMGP Neuroscience

Defense Date: April 19, 2016
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Daniel Lodge, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Effects of endogenous and exogenous cannabinoids on animal models of schizophrenia'
Current Position: 2016 – 18, Post-doc, Harvard Med School, Dept. of Psychiatry, Robert MCarley PhD, mentor 
2018 –, Post-doc, Harvard Med School, Dept. of Psychiatry, James McNally, PhD, mentor

Megan Jo Moerke, Ph.D., IMGP Neuroscience

Defense Date: April 28, 2016
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Lance McMahon, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Pharmacological mechanisms underlying the behavioral effects of direct- and indirect-acting nicotinic agonists in non-human prima tes and rodents'  
Current Position: 2016 – Post-doctoral fellow, Dept. Pharmacology & Toxicology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Steve Negus, Ph.D., mentor

Elizabeth Fucich, Ph.D., IMGP Neuroscience

Defense Date: Feb 24, 2017
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: David Morilak, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Medial prefrontal cortical mechanisms of behavioral therapy for stress-related psychiatric illness'
Current Position: 2017 – Post-doc, LSU HSC, Dept. of Physiology, Patricia Molina, MD/PhD, mentor 
2020 – Professor of Practice in Neuroscience, Tulane Brain Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

Allison (Doyle) Brackley, Ph.D., IMGP Neuroscience

Defense Date: March 30, 2017
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Nathan Jeske, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Awakening a DORmant Receptor'
Current Position: 2017 – Post-doc, UT Health San Antonio, Dept. of Physiology, Glenn Toney, mentor

Alicia Avelar, Ph.D., IMGP Neuroscience

Defense Date: November 8, 2017
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Mike Beckstead, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Discovering the cellular actions of atypical dopamine transporter inhibitors in midbrain dopamine neurons'
Current Position:2017 – Post-doc, Marshall University School of Medicine, Dept. of Biomedical Sciences, Brandon Henderson, Ph.D., mentor 

Mikaela Sifuentes, Ph.D., IMGP Neuroscience

Defense Date: November 30, 2017
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Jim Lechleiter, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Thyroid Hormone Neuroprotection From Ischemic Stroke by Stimulation of Astrocyte Fatty Acid Oxidation'
Current Position: Medical Writer, 3M

Deana Apple, Ph.D., IMGP Neuroscience

Defense Date: January 19, 2018
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Erzsebet Kokovay, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Effects of calorie restriction on the aging neural stem cell niche'
Current Position:2018 – ORISE Fellow (post-doc), Clinical Decision Support and Automation Research Branch, US Army Institute of Surgical Research (USAISR)

Kelsey Smith, Ph.D., GSBS Neuroscience

Defense Date: May 7, 2018
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Daniel Lodge, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'The medial prefrontal-to-amygdala pathway mediates the enduring anxiolytic effect of adolescent chronic unpredictable stress'
Current Position: 2018 – Post-Doc, Dept. Psychiatry & Behavioral Science, Duke University Med Center, Rebecca Klein, PhD, mentor

Tara Barron, Ph.D., GSBS Neuroscience

Defense Date: April 17, 2019
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Jun He Kim, Ph.D
Dissertation: 'Physiological Implications of Neuron-Oligodendrocyte Interaction'
Current Position: 2019 – Post-doc, Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Michelle Monje, PhD, mentor

Allison Garrison, Ph.D., GSBS Neuroscience

Defense Date: April 22, 2019
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Jason O’Connor, Ph.D. 
Dissertation: The Role of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Modulating Neuroinflammation
Current Position: 2019 – Allison is a clinical regulatory affairs specialist at a medical device company called OsteoMed in Addison TX

Paul Anthony Martinez, Ph.D., GSBS Neuroscience

Defense Date: June 7, 2019
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Randy Strong, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Biogenic aldehydes as therapeutic targets in Parkinson’s disease'
Current Position: 2019 – Post-doc, Department of Pharmacology, UTHSA, Randy Strong, Ph.D., mentor

Samantha Adler, Ph.D., GSBS Neuroscience

Defense Date: May 21, 2020
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: David Morilak, Ph.D.
Dissertation: 'Stress Effects on Neuronal Connectivity in the Orbitofrontal Cortex'
Current Position: 2020 – Human Performance Research Associate/Analyst, Senior Specialist, Psychology, Space and Mission Solutions Division, KBR Brooks City-Base, San Antonio TX

Danielle Santana Coelho, Ph.D., GSBS Neuroscience

Defense Date: September 22, 2020
UT Health San Antonio Mentor: Jason O’Connor, Ph.D.
Dissertation: ': Investigating the Pathophysiology of Maternal Inflammation-induced Autistic-like Phenotype: From Rodents to Primates'
Current Position: 2020 –  Post-doc, Dept. of Psychology & Neuroscience, Baylor University, Joaquin Lugo, Ph.D., mentor