Hermina Nedelescu Ph.D.

I am a neuroscientist working at the intersection of brain circuits and behavior. My research explores how positive and negative experiences are represented in the brain’s neurocircuitry, shaping adaptive and maladaptive behaviors relevant to human psychopathology and well-being.

My work investigates the neurobiological basis of substance use and sexual trauma, including mechanisms involved in dependence, attachment, withdrawal, craving, relapse, and cognitive impairment.

I began my graduate training at New York University (NYU), where I studied fear learning relevant to anxiety disorders with Dr. Chiye Aoki. This work strongly influenced my interest in experience-dependent neuroplasticity.

For my doctoral research, I received two fellowships: a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fellowship from the European Commission and a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) fellowship from Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. With support from these fellowships and the mentorship of Professors Arbuthnott and Aoki, I studied the structural plasticity of neuronal populations involved in acquired experiences.

From 2012 to 2014, I was hosted in Professor Yosef Yarom’s laboratory at the Hebrew University. This collaboration led to studies of the morphological and physiological properties of Purkinje cells in rodents and humans.

I later received a postdoctoral JSPS fellowship and joined Dr. Sugihara’s laboratory at Tokyo Medical and Dental University. There, I conducted brain-wide examinations of long-range axonal pathways to investigate neural circuits in detail.

In 2018, I joined the Scripps Research Institute to bridge the study of neural-circuit plasticity and behavior. I am currently a Staff Scientist in the Department of Neuroscience, where I study neuronal ensembles and engram cells within discrete circuits. This work examines how environmental and contextual stimuli activate neural circuits involved in maladaptive behavior.

My research aims to understand how substance-associated contexts acquire motivational value and contribute to drug seeking. I am extending this work to other forms of maladaptive behavior, including fear conditioning, anxiety, traumatic avoidance learning, and potentially predatory behavior.

I hold a K01 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to study how neuronal ensembles and engrams control opioid-motivated approach and avoidance behavior. Another line of my research focuses on sexual trauma.