Lyonna Parise, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Lyonna F. Parise's research investigates brain-body interactions that contribute to reward-related deficits in neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression and substance use disorders. Her multidisciplinary program integrates neuroimmune methodologies, molecular profiling, and translational rodent models to examine how peripheral effectors—particularly neutrophil-associated mechanisms—influence central nervous system function and shape reward-related behaviors following alcohol exposure.

Before joining Florida Atlantic University, Dr. Parise earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Psychology and Psychobiology, respectively, from Florida State University. Her early work focused on the neurobiology of reward dysfunction, specifically how adolescent exposure to psychostimulants alters gene expression within the mesolimbic reward system.

Dr. Parise completed her doctoral training in Behavioral and Cellular Neuroscience at Texas A&M University, where she investigated the long-term effects of emotional and physical stress during adolescence on adult behavior and molecular adaptations in reward-related brain regions. Her dissertation demonstrated that both direct and vicarious stress exposures produce comparable impairments in reward processing, highlighting the lasting impact of indirect stressors on mental health.

Following her Ph.D., Dr. Parise pursued postdoctoral training at the Brain and Body Research Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in the laboratory of Dr. Scott Russo. During this time, she expanded her research to explore how chronic stress and substance use alter peripheral immune signaling and compromise blood-brain barrier integrity.

Building on this foundation, the Parise Lab at FAU is focused on uncovering the peripheral and central mechanisms driving comorbid depression and addiction, with the ultimate goal of identifying novel therapeutic targets to improve treatment outcomes for these complex and often overlapping conditions.