Shiva Hassanzadeh-Behbahani (@ShivaHassanz) has received an F99/K00 grant!

Congratulations, to our trainee Shiva Hassanzadeh-Behbahani, Ph.D. candidate. Her hard work has led to her receiving an F99/K00 grant. The NIH Blueprint Diversity Specialized Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Advancement in Neuroscience (D-SPAN) Award supports the pre- to postdoctoral transition.

About her research:

About half of all people living with HIV in the U.S. are afflicted with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), yet the neural mechanisms remain unknown. Even mild forms of HAND significantly reduce quality of life for people with HIV and can result in unemployment, lack of adherence to antiretroviral therapy, and increased mortality. Shiva’s project will apply structural and functional MRI to determine the role of frontostriatal neural circuits in HAND to inform the development of early diagnostic methods. 

Way to go, Shiva!