Bio
Jason Tucciarone MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor with Stanford School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. As a neuroscientist, he leads a lab interested in biological mechanisms of mental illness and investigating new therapies for mood disorders and addiction. In particular, he is defining new cell types and evolutionary conserved circuits in emotional processing centers of the brain, with the hope of finding new entry points for novel therapeutics. Working with Dr Robert Malenka, he is using optogenetic, chemogenetic, neuroimaging and behavioral approaches in mouse models of addiction to uncover vulnerable brain circuitry in opioid use disorder. Alongside Dr Alan Schatzberg, he is investigating the efficacy of buprenorphine augmentation to IV ketamine infusion at reducing suicidality in treatment resistant depression.
Clinically, he works collaboratively in the department’s Neuropsychiatry clinic and his clinical focus includes treating patients with diverse and complex presentations at the interface of psychiatry and neurology with particular interest in functional neurological disorders. He sees a small cohort of psychotherapy patients in Individual Psychotherapy Clinic. He also works weekend shifts on Stanford’s inpatient psychiatry units.
Prior to training in psychiatry at Stanford’s research residency track Jason received his bachelor’s degree in biology and philosophy from Union College. He spent three years as a Post-Baccalaureate IRTA fellow at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke investigating and developing MRI reportable contrast agents to map neuronal connectivity. Following this he entered the Medical Scientist Training Program (MD/PhD) at the State University of NY Stony Brook University. There he completed a doctoral dissertation in neuroscience under the mentorship Dr. Josh Huang at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. His thesis work employed mouse genetic dissections of excitatory and inhibitory cortical circuits with a focus on the circuitry of chandelier inhibitory interneurons in prefrontal cortex.
In addition to his research and clinical work, Jason is passionate about teaching, mentorship, and resident clinical supervision. He joined a working group early in his clinical residency to restructure trainee’s neuroscience education. He teaches introductory lectures in the neuroscience of addiction, PTSD, psychosis, and mood disorders. He also leads resident group supervision in their introductory psychodynamic psychotherapy clinical experience. He supervises medical students, residents, and clinical fellows in Neuropsychiatry clinic. Finally, committed to the Stanford clinical community, he leads a support group for Internal Medicine interns and residents.
