Faculty Member
Professor
Department of Medicine
David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles
Personal Statement
My research in the areas of HIV, substance use disorder, and incarceration involves substantial proportion of individuals with mental illness, brain injuries, PTSD, and intellectual disabilities. I am interested in the potential for collaborations with BRI researchers that might support or inform improved health for these populations.
Dr. Hoftman’s laboratory works in the areas of genetic and clinical high risk for psychosis, schizophrenia, and neurodevelopment using imaging transcriptomics and molecular neuroscience, with the goal of connecting the molecular underpinnings of disruptions in neural circuitry in psychosis risk to in vivo human brain development. His research is or has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists, Sorensen Foundation Award for Child & Adolescent Psychiatrists, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation NARSAD Karen Seykora Young Investigator Award, UCLA Friends of Semel Institute Award, and Della Martin Award. Dr. Hoftman is dedicated to delivering evidence based TMS treatment for depression and numerous additional conditions offered in clinic, as well as its applications for psychosis and in children and adolescents.
Dr. Tiffany Ho is a cognitive neuroscientist by training and currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at UCLA. Dr. Ho studied Cognitive Science as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley before earning her Ph.D. in Psychology at UC San Diego. Dr. Ho completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuroscience at UC San Francisco followed by additional training in affective science at Stanford University. From 2018-2019, Dr. Ho was an Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. From 2019-2022, Dr. Ho was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Ho’s research has been generously funded by the Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation and National Institute of Mental Health.
Research in the Cognition, Affect, and Neurodevelopment in Youth (CANDY) lab seeks to understand how the brain circuits underlying our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors change over the course of adolescent development, how experiences of adversity and perceptions of stress shape neurodevelopment, and how these stress-related brain changes impact the etiology, course, and treatment of depression. To address these questions we utilize behavioral, cognitive, endocrine, immune, and neuroimaging techniques. We also leverage “big data” and participate in global initiatives to identify the most robust brain imaging markers associated with depression and related conditions.
