Kafui Dzirasa

Education

• Ph.D. Duke University, 2007
• M.D. Duke University, School of Medicine, 2009

Trainings & Certifications

• Resident in Psychiatry, PSYCHIATRY (2010 - 2016) Duke University, School of Medicine

Positions

• A. Eugene and Marie Washington Presidential Distinguished Professor
• Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
• Professor in Neurobiology
• Professor in Neurosurgery
• Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering
• Investigator in the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

• College of Fellows. American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. 2023
• Elected Member. National Academy of Medicine. 2021
• HHMI Investigator. Howard Hughes Medical Institute. 2021

Courses Taught

• PSY 494: Research Independent Study
• NEUROSCI 494: Research Independent Study 2
• NEUROSCI 493: Research Independent Study 1
• NEUROBIO 393: Research Independent Study
• BME 792: Continuation of Graduate Independent Study
• BME 791: Graduate Independent Study
• BME 493: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)

Publications

• Rawls A, Dziabis J, Nguyen D, Anbarci D, Clark M, Zhang G, et al. Sex-specific regulation of microglial MyD88 in HMGB1-Induced anxiety phenotype in mice. Neurobiol Stress. 2025 May;36:100721.
• Gordon JA, Dzirasa K, Petzschner FH. The neuroscience of mental illness: Building toward the future. Cell. 2024 Oct 17;187(21):5858u201370.
• Dzirasa K, Thomas GE, Hathaway AC. Towards equitable brain genomics research, for us by us. Nat Neurosci. 2024 Jun;27(6):1021u20133.
• Walder-Christensen K, Abdelaal K, Klein H, Thomas GE, Gallagher NM, Talbot A, et al. Electome network factors: Capturing emotional brain networks related to health and disease. Cell reports methods. 2024 Jan;4(1):100691.
• Shen FX, Wolf SM, Lawrenz F, Comeau DS, Dzirasa K, Evans BJ, et al. Ethical, legal, and policy challenges in field-based neuroimaging research using emerging portable MRI technologies: guidance for investigators and for oversight. J Law Biosci. 2024;11(1):lsae008.
• Kirchner SJ, Lei V, Kim PT, Patel M, Shannon JL, Corcoran D, et al. An aging-susceptible circadian rhythm controls cutaneous antiviral immunity. JCI Insight. 2023 Oct 23;8(20).
• Widge AS, Jordan A, Kraguljac NV, Sullivan CRP, Wilson S, Benton TD, et al. Structural Racism in Psychiatric Research Careers: Eradicating Barriers to a More Diverse Workforce. Am J Psychiatry. 2023 Sep 1;180(9):645u201359.
• Talbot A, Dunson D, Dzirasa K, Carlson D. Estimating a brain network predictive of stress and genotype with supervised autoencoders. J R Stat Soc Ser C Appl Stat. 2023 Aug;72(4):912u201336.
• Mays A, Byars-Winston A, Hinton A, Marshall AG, Kirabo A, August A, et al. Juneteenth in STEMM and the barriers to equitable science. Cell. 2023 Jun 8;186(12):2510u20137.
• Nguyen M, Chaudhry SI, Desai MM, Dzirasa K, Cavazos JE, Boatright D. Gender, Racial, and Ethnic and Inequities in Receipt of Multiple National Institutes of Health Research Project Grants. JAMA Netw Open. 2023 Feb 1;6(2):e230855.
• Derk J, Dzirasa K, Locklear T. A novel cross-institutional college internship program to train future diverse leaders in clinical research with data-driven approaches to assess impact. Front Pharmacol. 2023;14:1294535.
• Locklear T, Lewis R, Calhoun F, Li A, Dickerson KC, McMillan A, et al. Advancing workforce diversity by leveraging the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program. J Clin Transl Sci. 2023;7(1):e30.
• Block CL, Eroglu O, Mague SD, Smith CJ, Ceasrine AM, Sriworarat C, et al. Prenatal environmental stressors impair postnatal microglia function and adult behavior in males. Cell Rep. 2022 Aug 2;40(5):111161.
• Caron KM, Dzirasa K. Marc G. Caron (1946-2022). Neuron. 2022 Jul 6;110(13):2050u20131.
• Mague SD, Talbot A, Blount C, Walder-Christensen KK, Duffney LJ, Adamson E, et al. Brain-wide electrical dynamics encode individual appetitive social behavior. Neuron. 2022 May 18;110(10):1728-1741.e7.
• Jaaro-Peled H, Kumar S, Hughes D, Sumitomo A, Kim S-H, Zoubovsky S, et al. Regulation of sensorimotor gating via Disc1/Huntingtin-mediated Bdnf transport in the cortico-striatal circuit. Mol Psychiatry. 2022 Mar;27(3):1805u201315.
• Liston C, Roberts A, Dzirasa K, Geschwind D, Ahmari SE, Lu00fcscher C. Understanding the biological basis of psychiatric disease: What's next? Cell. 2022 Jan 6;185(1):1u20133.
• Nicholls PJ, Pack TF, Urs NM, Kumar S, Zhou Y, Ichim G, et al. Measuring Nonapoptotic Caspase Activity with a Transgenic Reporter in Mice. eNeuro. 2022;9(5).
• Gallagher NM, Dzirasa K, Carlson D. Directed Spectral Measures Improve Latent Network Models Of Neural Populations. Adv Neural Inf Process Syst. 2021 Dec;34:7421u201335.
• Tilghman S, Alberts B, Colu00f3n-Ramos D, Dzirasa K, Kimble J, Varmus H. Concrete steps to diversify the scientific workforce. Science. 2021 Apr 9;372(6538):133u20135.
• Dzirasa K. Revising the a Priori Hypothesis: Systemic Racism Has Penetrated Scientific Funding. Cell. 2020 Oct 29;183(3):576u20139.
• Weinberger DR, Dzirasa K, Crumpton-Young LL. Missing in Action: African Ancestry Brain Research. Neuron. 2020 Aug 5;107(3):407u201311.
• Dzirasa K. For Black Scientists, the Sorrow Is Also Personal. Cell. 2020 Jul 23;182(2):263u20134.
• Hish AJ, Nagy GA, Fang CM, Kelley L, Nicchitta CV, Dzirasa K, et al. Acceptability and perceived effectiveness of approaches to support biomedical doctoral student wellness: One size doesnu21d4t fit all. International Journal of Doctoral Studies. 2020 Jan 1;15:653u201384.
• Grossman Y, Dzirasa K. Is depression a disorder of electrical brain networks? Neuropsychopharmacology. 2020 Jan;45(1):230u20131.
• Hish AJ, Nagy GA, Fang CM, Kelley L, Nicchitta CV, Dzirasa K, et al. Applying the Stress Process Model to Stress-Burnout and Stress-Depression Relationships in Biomedical Doctoral Students: A Cross-Sectional Pilot Study. CBE life sciences education. 2019 Dec;18(4):ar51.
• Jiang-Xie L-F, Yin L, Zhao S, Prevosto V, Han B-X, Dzirasa K, et al. A Common Neuroendocrine Substrate for Diverse General Anesthetics and Sleep. Neuron. 2019 Jun 5;102(5):1053-1065.e4.
• Nagy GA, Fang CM, Hish AJ, Kelly L, Nicchitta CV, Dzirasa K, et al. Burnout and Mental Health Problems in Biomedical Doctoral Students. CBE Life Sci Educ. 2019 Jun;18(2):ar27.
• Hultman R, Ulrich K, Sachs BD, Blount C, Carlson DE, Ndubuizu N, et al. Brain-wide Electrical Spatiotemporal Dynamics Encode Depression Vulnerability. Cell. 2018 Mar 22;173(1):166-180.e14.
• Vu M-AT, Adalu0131 T, Ba D, Buzsu00e1ki G, Carlson D, Heller K, et al. A Shared Vision for Machine Learning in Neuroscience. J Neurosci. 2018 Feb 14;38(7):1601u20137.
• Dzirasa K. Neuronal suppression causing depression? Science Translational Medicine. 2018 Jan 24;10(425).
• Carlson D, David LK, Gallagher NM, Vu M-AT, Shirley M, Hultman R, et al. Dynamically Timed Stimulation of Corticolimbic Circuitry Activates a Stress-Compensatory Pathway. Biol Psychiatry. 2017 Dec 15;82(12):904u201313.
• Dzirasa K. Brain leak, mind bleak. Science Translational Medicine. 2017 Dec 6;9(419).
• Dzirasa K. The new stars of synaptic regulation. Science Translational Medicine. 2017 Oct 25;9(413).
• Dzirasa K. In the mood for food. Science Translational Medicine. 2017 Sep 13;9(407).
• Dzirasa K. A brilliant approach to study the basis of intelligence? Science Translational Medicine. 2017 Aug 2;9(401).
• Dzirasa K. When they go low, we go high. Sci Transl Med. 2017 Jun 21;9(395).
• Schaich Borg J, Srivastava S, Lin L, Heffner J, Dunson D, Dzirasa K, et al. Rat intersubjective decisions are encoded by frequency-specific oscillatory contexts. Brain Behav. 2017 Jun;7(6):e00710.
• Dzirasa K. Working memory: The real VIP. Sci Transl Med. 2017 May 10;9(389).
• Dzirasa K. The neural substrates of super memory. Sci Transl Med. 2017 Mar 29;9(383).
• Gallagher NM, Ulrich K, Talbot A, Dzirasa K, Carin L, Carlson DE. Cross-spectral factor analysis. In: Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems. 2017. p. 6843u201353.
• Li Y, Murias M, Major S, Dawson G, Dzirasa K, Carin L, et al. Targeting EEG/LFP synchrony with neural nets. In: Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems. 2017. p. 4621u201331.
• Ade KK, Wan Y, Hamann HC, Ou2019Hare JK, Guo W, Quian A, et al. Increased Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 5 Signaling Underlies Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder-like Behavioral and Striatal Circuit Abnormalities in Mice. Biol Psychiatry. 2016 Oct 1;80(7):522u201333.
• Hultman R, Mague SD, Li Q, Katz BM, Michel N, Lin L, et al. Dysregulation of Prefrontal Cortex-Mediated Slow-Evolving Limbic Dynamics Drives Stress-Induced Emotional Pathology. Neuron. 2016 Jul 20;91(2):439u201352.
• Wang X, Bey AL, Katz BM, Badea A, Kim N, David LK, et al. Altered mGluR5-Homer scaffolds and corticostriatal connectivity in a Shank3 complete knockout model of autism. Nat Commun. 2016 May 10;7:11459.
• Gordon JA, Dzirasa K. Animal models of psychiatric disorders. Neuroscience. 2016 May 3;321:1u20132.
• Sidor MM, Spencer SM, Dzirasa K, Parekh PK, Tye KM, Warden MR, et al. Daytime spikes in dopaminergic activity drive rapid mood-cycling in mice. Mol Psychiatry. 2015 Nov;20(11):1479u201380.
• Sidor MM, Spencer SM, Dzirasa K, Parekh PK, Tye KM, Warden MR, et al. Daytime spikes in dopaminergic activity drive rapid mood-cycling in mice. Mol Psychiatry. 2015 Nov;20(11):1406u201319.
• Hultman R, Sidor MM, Dzirasa K. Tuning the Brain-Gut Axis in Health and Disease. Current Stem Cell Reports. 2015 Mar 1;1(1):60u20136.
• Dzirasa K, Krishnan RR, Williams RS. Incubating the research independence of a medical scientist training program graduate: a case study. Acad Med. 2015 Feb;90(2):176u20139.
• Ulrich KR, Carlson DE, Dzirasa K, Carin L. GP kernels for cross-spectrum analysis. In: Advances in neural information processing systems. 2015. p. 1999u20132007.
• Borg JS, Vu M-A, Badea C, Badea A, Johnson GA, Dzirasa K. Localization of Metal Electrodes in the Intact Rat Brain Using Registration of 3D Microcomputed Tomography Images to a Magnetic Resonance Histology Atlas. eNeuro. 2015;2(4).
• Kumar S, Hultman R, Hughes D, Michel N, Katz BM, Dzirasa K. Prefrontal cortex reactivity underlies trait vulnerability to chronic social defeat stress. Nat Commun. 2014 Jul 29;5:4537.
• Ulrich K, Carlson DE, Lian W, Borg JS, Dzirasa K, Carin L. Analysis of Brain States from Multi-Region LFP Time-Series. In: Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems. 2014.
• Carlson DE, Borg JS, Dzirasa K, Carin L. On the Relationship Between LFP & Spiking Data. In: Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems. 2014.
• Dzirasa K, Kumar S, Sachs BD, Caron MG, Nicolelis MAL. Cortical-amygdalar circuit dysfunction in a genetic mouse model of serotonin deficiency. J Neurosci. 2013 Mar 6;33(10):4505u201313.
• Kumar S, Black SJ, Hultman R, Szabo ST, DeMaio KD, Du J, et al. Cortical control of affective networks. J Neurosci. 2013 Jan 16;33(3):1116u201329.
• Dzirasa K, Lisanby SH. How does deep brain stimulation work? Biol Psychiatry. 2012 Dec 1;72(11):892u20134.
• Dzirasa K, Covington HE. Increasing the validity of experimental models for depression. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2012 Aug;1265:36u201345.
• Dzirasa K, McGarity DL, Bhattacharya A, Kumar S, Takahashi JS, Dunson D, et al. Impaired limbic gamma oscillatory synchrony during anxiety-related behavior in a genetic mouse model of bipolar mania. J Neurosci. 2011 Apr 27;31(17):6449u201356.
• Dzirasa K, Fuentes R, Kumar S, Potes JM, Nicolelis MAL. Chronic in vivo multi-circuit neurophysiological recordings in mice. J Neurosci Methods. 2011 Jan 30;195(1):36u201346.
• Dzirasa K, Coque L, Sidor MM, Kumar S, Dancy EA, Takahashi JS, et al. Lithium ameliorates nucleus accumbens phase-signaling dysfunction in a genetic mouse model of mania. J Neurosci. 2010 Dec 1;30(48):16314u201323.
• Fuentes R, Dzirasa K, Nicolelis MAL. Acute Effects of Spinal Cord Stimulation in Large-Scale Brain Circuits in a Transgenic Mouse Parkinson's Model. MOVEMENT DISORDERS. 2010 Sep 15;25:S630u2013S630.
• Dzirasa K, Phillips HW, Sotnikova TD, Salahpour A, Kumar S, Gainetdinov RR, et al. Noradrenergic control of cortico-striato-thalamic and mesolimbic cross-structural synchrony. J Neurosci. 2010 May 5;30(18):6387u201397.
• Dzirasa K, Ramsey AJ, Takahashi DY, Stapleton J, Potes JM, Williams JK, et al. Hyperdopaminergia and NMDA receptor hypofunction disrupt neural phase signaling. J Neurosci. 2009 Jun 24;29(25):8215u201324.
• Dzirasa K, Santos LM, Ribeiro S, Stapleton J, Gainetdinov RR, Caron MG, et al. Persistent hyperdopaminergia decreases the peak frequency of hippocampal theta oscillations during quiet waking and REM sleep. PLoS One. 2009;4(4):e5238.
• Santos LM, Dzirasa K, Kubo R, Silva MTA, Ribeiro S, Sameshima K, et al. Baseline hippocampal theta oscillation speeds correlate with rate of operant task acquisition. Behav Brain Res. 2008 Jun 26;190(1):152u20135.
• Dzirasa K. Chronic recordings in transgenic mice. In: Methods for Neural Ensemble Recordings, Second Edition. 2007. p. 83u201396.
• Dzirasa K, Ribeiro S, Costa R, Santos LM, Lin SC, Grosmark A, et al. Erratum: Dopaminergic Control of Sleep-Wake States (Journal of Neuroscience (October 11, 2006) (10577-10589)). Journal of Neuroscience. 2006 Nov 22;26(47).
• Dzirasa K, Ribeiro S, Costa R, Santos LM, Lin S-C, Grosmark A, et al. Dopaminergic control of sleep-wake states. J Neurosci. 2006 Oct 11;26(41):10577u201389.
• Semple KT, Lee PH, Reid BJ, Dzirasa K. Bioavailability of cable insulating oil to soil biota. Battelle Memorial Institute International In Situ and On-Site Bioreclamation Symposium Proceedings. 1999 Dec 1;5.

In The News

• Duke 100 Trailblazer: Kafui Dzirasa (Aug 26, 2024 | Duke Centennial)
• Duke Awards 32 New Distinguished Professorships for 2024 (Mar 19, 2024 | Duke Today)
• First Presidential Distinguished Chair Named in Honor of Chancellor Washington, Awarded to Dzirasa (Jun 15, 2023 | Duke School of Medicine)
• Dzirasa Elected Member of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (Mar 29, 2023 | Duke Today)
• Two Duke Faculty Have Won the NIHu2019s Prestigious Pioneer Award (Oct 3, 2022 | )
• Duke Scientists Find Brain Network That Makes Mice Mingle (Mar 15, 2022 | )
• Kafui Dzirasa Elected to National Academy of Medicine (Oct 19, 2021 | School of Medicine)
• Two Duke Brain Scientists Named Howard Hughes Investigators (Sep 17, 2021 | )
• A Call for Action on Structural Racism in Scientific Funding (Oct 30, 2020 | School of Medicine)
• For Black Scientists, the Sorrow Is Also Personal (Jul 21, 2020 | )
• Dr. Kafui Dzirasa: For Black Scientists, the Sorrow Is Also Personal (Jul 21, 2020 | )
• Graduate School Inducts Three into Outstanding Alumni Society (Aug 30, 2019 | Graduate School)
• General Anesthesia Hijacks Sleep Circuitry to Knock You Out (Apr 18, 2019 | )
• Dzirasa and Cook Named to American Society for Clinical Investigation (Dec 14, 2018 | )
• Building a Better Brain (Aug 6, 2018 | Duke Medicine Alumni Magazine)
• Networks of Brain Activity Predict Vulnerability to Depression (Mar 1, 2018 | Duke University)
• Chatter in the Deep Brain Spurs Empathy in Rats (Jun 23, 2017 | )
• Inspiring the Young African-American Physician-Scientist (Feb 15, 2017 | )
• Dr. Kafui Dzirasa Discusses the Next Big Idea in Brain Research (Oct 18, 2016 | )
• Duke Brain Researchers Receive Award From Keck Foundation (Aug 9, 2016 | )
• Control Of A Timekeeping Circuit In The Brain Alters Mood (Jun 23, 2016 | )
• Neuroscientist Kafui Dzirasa Honored at White House (May 9, 2016 | )
• Dr. Kafui Dzirasa: A look at mania (Apr 14, 2016 | PBS u201cRide the Tigeru201d documentary)
• Neuroscientist Kafui Dzirasa Earns Presidential Early Career Award (Feb 19, 2016 | )
• Allen Song Named Interim Director of Brain Institute (Jun 26, 2015 | )
• New study identifies why some deal with stress better (Jul 30, 2014 | USA Today)
• A New Brain-Based Marker of Stress Susceptibility (Jul 29, 2014 | )