Rajeev I. Desai, PhD
Director, Integrative Neurochemistry Laboratory
- Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Biography
Rajeev I. Desai, PhD, is an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Integrative Neurochemistry Laboratory at McLean Hospital. Dr. Desai received his PhD in psychology/behavioral pharmacology at the University of Birmingham, U.K. He completed post-doctoral fellowships in psychobiology under the direction of Dr. Jonathan L. Katz at the National Institute on Drug Abuse and pharmacology under the direction of Dr. Jack Bergman at McLean Hospital.
Dr. Desai’s research program is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)/DOD, and biopharmaceutical industry. At McLean Hospital, Dr. Desai has served on various committees, including the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. He has also held the position of McLean Hospital Neuroscience Seminar Series coordinator.
Dr. Desai’s Integrative Neurochemistry Laboratory examines how drugs of misuse and environmental stressors alter brain neurochemical mechanisms to impact behavior.
Through this work, Dr. Desai evaluates novel treatment strategies that may help manage drug addiction, as well as comorbidity with other neuropsychiatry conditions. He and his colleagues have characterized the association between changes in brain neurochemistry and behavioral actions of stimulants, opioids, and cannabinoids.
In recent years, Dr. Desai developed methods combining microdialysis with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis to map real-time changes in neurochemical signatures in the brain. These signatures may be induced by exposure to drugs of misuse, environmental stressors, and neuropsychiatric conditions. Dr. Desai and his team use this approach to chart how stimulants, opioids, and cannabinoids alter neurochemistry in targeted brain regions (e.g., reward circuit) that may be involved in addiction-related behavioral actions.
Over the last decade, Dr. Desai and his team have evaluated the potential of new pharmacological and immunological treatment strategies to help manage drug addiction. For example, his team investigated the utility of agonist-based pharmacological interventions for nicotine and stimulant addiction.
In collaboration with the biopharmaceutical industry, Dr. Desai’s ongoing research examines the ability of candidate vaccines and monoclonal antibodies to counter the adverse effects of nicotine and the opioid fentanyl. This work aims to speed the development of effective pharmacological and/or immunological medication strategies for drug addiction.
Dr. Desai’s research program has expanded to include NASA-supported studies of neurobehavioral responses to environmental and space stressors as well DTRA/DOD-supported investigations into the consequences of exposure to chemical weapons analogues. In particular, Dr. Desai’s work has contribute to: NASA’s understanding of the impact of spaceflight hazards on brain function [e.g., in the planned Artemis Moon and Mars mission] and DTRA/DOD’s understanding of neurocognitive deficits that may result following chemical exposure, thereby accelerating the development of prophylactic or treatment strategies.
More broadly, understanding the impact of such diverse stressful contexts (e.g., sleep deprivation, social isolation/confinement, chemical exposure, space radiation, altered gravity) on brain neurochemistry and complex behavior will provide Dr. Desai and his colleagues with a solid roadmap for future research toward alleviating the adverse CNS consequences of environmental stressors on human health and performance.
- Jack Bergman, PhD, McLean Hospital
- Paul Bremer, PhD, Cessation Therapeutics
- Bill Carlezon, PhD, McLean Hospital
- Brian D. Kangas, PhD, McLean Hospital
- Stephen J. Kohut, PhD, McLean Hospital
- Charles L. Limoli, PhD, University of California, Irvine
- Alexandros Makriyannis, PhD, Northeastern University
- Carol A. Paronis, PhD, McLean Hospital
Desai RI, Kopajtic TA, Koffarnus M, Newman AH, Katz JL. Identification of a dopamine transporter ligand that blocks the stimulant effects of cocaine. The Journal of Neuroscience. 2005;25(8):1889-1893.
Desai RI, Kangas BD, Luc OT, Solakidou E, Smith EC, Dawes MH, Ma X, Makriyannis A, Chatterjee S, Dayeh MA, Muñoz-Jaramillo A, Desai MI, Limoli CL. Complex 33-beam simulated galactic cosmic radiation exposure impacts cognitive function and prefrontal cortex neurotransmitter networks in male mice. Nature Communications. 2023;14(1):7779.
Bremer PT, Burke EL, Barrett AC, Desai RI. Investigation of monoclonal antibody CSX-1004 for fentanyl overdose. Nature Communications. 2023;14(1):7700.
Education & Training
- 1995 BSc in Neuroscience, University of Nottingham, U.K.
- 2001 PhD in Behavioral Pharmacology and Psychology, University of Birmingham, U.K.
- 2001 Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Psychology, University of Birmingham, U.K.
- 2002-2005 Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in Psychobiology, National Institute on Drug Abuse
- 2006-2007 Research Fellowship in Psychobiology, Preclinical Pharmacology Laboratory, McLean Hospital
