Kyle Bills, DC, PhD

Associate Dean of Research

Dr. Bills’ laboratory seeks to understand the neuroscience of peripheral neurological stimulation particularly as it relates to addiction.  We study the non-canonical central hodology of spinal mechanoreceptors and their effects on the mesolimbic circuitry.  We also place particular emphasis on translational applications for non-pharmacological interventions for addiction.

John A. Kriak, Pharm.D.

Senior Director of Biomedical Research & Sponsored Programs and Associate Professor of Biomedical & Clinical Pharmacology

Dr. Kriak’s laboratory focuses on the integration of Pharmacogenomics and AI technology in conjunction with existing patient data to improve medication response rates and treatment outcomes. We also focus on addressing existing gaps in healthcare data utilization and ways to facilitate better healthcare delivery.

David Sant, PhD

Assistant Professor of Genetics

Dr. Sant’s laboratory is focused on analysis of large datasets with a particular interest in genomic and epigenomic datasets. Much of his work has revolved around chromatin modification and DNA hydroxymethylation patterns and how they change in response to changes in cellular environment. Other projects have involved updating the Sequence Ontology and designing web-scraping programs to obtain and normalize genetic variant information from multiple clinical genetic variant databases. 

Christina Small, MS

Assistant Staff Scientist

Scott C. Steffensen, PhD

Grant-funded Researcher

Dr. Steffensen’s laboratory primarily utilizes electrophysiology (both in vitro and in vivo) to measure and analyze the effects of substances on dopamine (DA) release in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) of the anterior forebrain. Understanding the effects of DA is vital to understanding addiction and also the eventual clinical development of treatment. He is an emeritus Professor of Neuroscience in Research & Biomedical Science at BYU.

Michael Sullivan

Data Engineer