Kristen Woodberry, MSW, PhD, Faculty Scientist, Center for Psychiatric Research, MaineHealth Institute for Research

Kristen Woodberry, MSW, PhD, is a clinical social worker, licensed clinical psychologist, and early psychosis researcher at the MaineHealth Institute for Research and an affiliate at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. A graduate of Bowdoin College, she obtained her MSW from Simmons College School of Social Work and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University. She is a Research Assistant Professor in the Psychiatry Department at the Tufts School of Medicine.

With over 25 years of clinical experience with children, adolescents, and families, including pioneering work adapting multifamily psychoeducational group therapies for adolescents and their families, Dr. Woodberry’s research has focused on early intervention in major mental health conditions. She is particularly interested in 1) improving earlier identification and engagement of adolescents and young adults in primary care settings, and 3) understanding the needs of rural youth with psychotic-spectrum experiences to guide the expansion of specialized care to rural communities. Read full bio

Michael Mason, PhD, Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering and Assoc. Director Graduate School for Biomedical Science and Engineering, University of Maine

Dr. Michael Mason earned undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Physics at the University of Puget Sound in 1995. He went on to obtain his PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of California Santa Barbara in 2001, working in the area of nanomaterials and single molecule/ quantum dot imaging and photophysics. Before joining the Engineering faculty at UMaine in 2004, Dr. Mason worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Yale University in the Department of Applied Physics developing spectroscopic imaging tools for real-time chemical analysis and dynamics in complex systems. Dr. Mason has over 20 years of experience in the design and synthesis of structured nanomaterials and nanomaterial based constructs, and in designing and developing highly sensitive instrumentation, including single molecule/nanoparticle Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging tools. Specific research interests include: development of biosensors and instrumentation for veterinary and biomedical applications; Fluorescence, Raman and multimodal Spectroscopies; Single molecule techniques; Localization Microscopy; Quantum dot synthesis and photophysics; Surface Chemistry of Materials; Colloidal Science; Photolithography; Single molecule kinetics; Molecular studies of coatings; Integrated Electroluminescent materials; Nanomaterials and porous solids. Recent work in the Mason lab includes the development of methods for the generation of nanocellulose based porous solid materials and commercialization of these materials for use in biomedical applications. Dr. Mason’s research is highly interdisciplinary bringing together chemists, physicists, materials scientists, biochemists and biologists with engineers and, recently, health professionals to address a broad range of challenges. Dr. Mason has over 150 peer reviewed manuscripts and technical reports, book chapters, and conference proceedings as well as 5 patents.

Kristen O’Connell, PhD, Associate Professor, The Jackson Laboratory

Kristen O’Connell’s research program is focused on understanding the impact of diet, body weight and peripheral hormone signaling on neuronal excitability and plasticity in the hypothalamus and other brain regions associated with the regulation of food intake and body weight.

Joshua Kelley, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Maine

Josh Kelley is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Molecular and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Maine. His lab studies the spatiotemporal regulation of G-protein signaling using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism. Dr. Kelley is interested in small G-proteins, large G-proteins, and G-protein Coupled Receptors. He specifically studies how negative regulation of G-protein signaling influences cell polarity, ctyoskeletal organization, and cellular morphogenesis. The Kelley lab makes use of yeast genetics, biochemistry, live-cell fluorescence microscopy, custom microfluidics devices, computational modeling, and computational image analysis approaches. He is particularly interested in uncovering signaling motifs with applicability to cancer, heart disease, and aging.