The TREAT lab is directed by Dr. Lauren Luther. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the Department of Psychology, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology. Previously, she was an Assistant Research Scientist (research faculty) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Dr. Gregory Strauss’s lab. She completed postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience frameworks and methods at UGA and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) at Harvard Medical School. Her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Indiana University Indianapolis and post-baccalaureate research assistantship at the University of Pennsylvania focused on intervention development and the implementation and dissemination of evidence-based practices for severe mental illness. She completed her pre-doctoral internship in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and is a licensed clinical psychologist.
Her research program uses an two-pronged experimental therapeutics framework that to evaluate novel mechanisms of negative symptoms and to identify treatment targets. Specifically, her first research line focuses on the identification and assessment of behavioral, real-world, and neural mechanisms of negative symptoms. Her second line of research focuses on the clinical translation of our mechanism identification research into digital, mobile health (mHealth), and psychosocial treatment development, evaluation, dissemination, and implementation efforts. She uses a multi-modal approach, integrating methods from neuroscience (EEG, fMRI, eye tracking, computational methods) and ambulatory assessments (EMA, passive sensing) to better elucidate, assess, and treat the processes underlying negative symptoms transphasically (i.e., across psychosis illness phases, including youth at risk for psychosis, adults with first-episode psychosis, and adults with prolonged psychosis) as well as transdiagnostically across schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses.
Research Staff
Celeste Patron, B.S.
Celeste is a full-time research coordinator in the TREAT lab.
Graduate Students
Davis Jones, B.S.
Davis is a Behavioral Neuroscience master’s student.
Robineasha Mumford, B.S.
Robineasha is a Behavioral Neuroscience master’s student.
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Lab Helpers
