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Leah Varghese

Leah Varghese joined TRACC as a third-year undergraduate student attending CCNY’s Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education/CUNY School of Medicine. Her research interests lie in examining the effects of social, emotional, cognitive, neurobiological, and genetic factors on substance use patterns and pathological personality characteristics. She is also interested in improving screenings for substance use disorders. Her journey to pursuing psychopathology research was reinforced by translational addiction courses she attended at CCNY. She is currently working under the mentorship of Dr. Eric Fertuck at the Social Neuroscience and Psychopathology Lab to investigate the role of substance craving and rejection sensitivity in demographics with borderline personality disorder, depression, and social anxiety. Leah’s interest in addictions combines her love for medicine with her desire to understand the impact of addictions on physical, mental, and emotional health. She hopes to gain new insights and develop intervention strategies for addictions throughout her time in the TRACC Program. Leah is extremely grateful for this opportunity to develop new skills under her mentor and to join this incredible research community as a TRACC Scholar.