Turhan Canli, Ph.D. Lab Director.
Associate Professor in Psychology, and in the Graduate Program in Genetics
Director, SCAN (Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience) Center
Senior Fellow, Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics
Stony Brook University

Dr. Canli's (CV) primary research interests cover the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and molecular biology. His Ph.D. is in psychobiology (Yale University ’93), with postdoctoral training in behavioral, cognitive and affective neuroscience (Yale University’93-’95; Stanford University’95-2001), and later training in molecular biology (certification Molecular Biology Summer Workshop, Smith College, 2002; sabbatical leave at the Genomics Core Facility, Stony Brook University, Jan-Dec 2008).

Current work in Dr. Canli’s laboratory focuses on gene-environment interactions, specifically the molecular genetic and epigenetic mechanisms that regulate gene expression across the human genome. This general approach is applied to studies of individual differences in social stress reactivity, traits, emotional behavior, and political, religious, and cultural beliefs, traits, and attitudes.

Research in Dr. Canli’s laboratory covers all levels of analysis: self-report, behavioral, neural, and molecular. Behavioral studies are conducted in the Department of Psychology. Neuroimaging studies are conducted in the SCAN (Social, Cognitive, and Affective Neuroscience) Center, a 3 Tesla Siemens Trio MRI imaging facility funded by the National Science Foundation in a grant to Dr. Canli. Molecular (epi-) genetic studies are conducted in the Center for Molecular Medicine and the Genomics Core Facility.

Dr. Canli’s secondary area of interest is related to problems in the real world. He is a co-founder of the Neuroethics Society, an international scholarly society concerned with the ethical implications of neuroscience applications in the real world. He has served on the Executive Board of the Neuroethics Society since its inception in 2006, and also serves as a Senior Fellow in the Stony Brook Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics, as well as a member of the Advisory Council of the Brazilian Ethics and Bioethics Institute in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He teaches a course on "Changing the World with $20 Microcredits", and is interested in issues related to Global Mental Health, specialty populations (refugees, child soldiers), and human rights.

Dr. Canli plays many advisory roles, including as a member of the Steering Committee in Positive Neuroscience to the Templeton Foundation, and as a Member of the National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA), Genetics Subcommittee. He also advised the research foundations of the governments of the Austria, Canada, Germany, Israel, and the United Kingdom, as well as the National Science Foundation, the Veteran’s Administration, and the National Institutes of Health of the United States.

Dr. Canli has received several awards, including the 2008 James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Award from the Cattell Fund and the Association for Psychological Science, and the 2006 Alumni Recognition Award from Tufts University’s EPIIC (Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship) Program "in recognition of your distinguished scholarly accomplishments, path-breaking ways to understand the brain, and your dedication to ethics in science and public policy".

LAB MANAGER

Irina Livitz

POSTDOCS

Anett Müller, Ph.D.
CV
Publications

Hiroki Murakami, Ph.D.

GRADUATE STUDENTS

Elif Aysimi Duman
Biopsychology Ph.D. Prgram
eduman [at] notes.cc.sunysb.edu
Interests: Early life stress, gene-environment interactions, individual differences in stress reactivity, cortisol, gene expression, DNA methylation.

Jamie Ferri
Biopsychology Ph.D. Program

Magdalena Jurkiewicz
M.D./Ph.D. Program

RESEARCH ASSISTANTS

Bilal Asif

Rajaa Mourabet

Alarico Barabino

Henry Xiao

Meher Mamoor

Simon Huang

Emma Kobolakis

LAB MASCOT

Ian

ALUMNI

Previous Post Docs:

Dirk Moser, Ph.D.

Kazufumi Omura, Ph.D.

Previous Graduate Students:

Zenab Amin, Ph.D.

Eliza Congdon, Ph.D.

Brian Haas, Ph.D.

Previous Research Assistants:

Radoslav Petrov

Shephali Sharma