Amber L. Alhadeff, Ph.D.

principal investigator

Dr. Amber L. Alhadeff began her career in research in 2007 when she joined the laboratory of Dr. Harvey Grill at the University of Pennsylvania as a sophomore in college. She continued on to get her Ph.D. with Dr. Harvey Grill and Dr. Matthew Hayes, where she investigated the effects of hindbrain neuroendocrine signaling on food intake control. After receiving her Ph.D., Amber joined the laboratory of Dr. J. Nicholas Betley at Penn for her postdoctoral research. During her time in the Betley Lab, Dr. Alhadeff explored the physiological regulation of homeostatic and reward circuits in the brain. As a postdoc, Amber received independent funding from the NIH (F32 NRSA, K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award), L’Oreal USA For Women In Science, and The Obesity Society. The Alhadeff Lab opened in 2020 at the Monell Chemical Senses Center and Department of Neuroscience at Penn and is focused on the gut-brain signaling dynamics underlying motivated behavior. The Alhadeff lab is funded by the NIH (NIDDK and NCCIH), the Klingenstein Fund and Simons Foundation, the American Heart Association, the Monell Center, and the Penn Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. Amber is a recipient of the 2021 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and the 2021 Eppendorf & Science Prize in Neurobiology, and is a Pew Biomedical Scholar and a New York Stem Cell Foundation - Robertson Neuroscience Investigator.