Ralph DiLeone, PhD

Research in the DiLeone Lab covers a broad range of motivated behaviors (food intake, drug intake, movement/physical activity), and leverages the strength of the mouse model to identify mechanisms from the molecular to computation levels. Ralph DiLeone has a long-standing interest in body-brain crosstalk and how this influences our daily decisions about food and drugs of abuse that dramatically impact our performance and health. The DiLeone Lab collaborates with several translational studies to better connect mouse and human data. Recent interests also include understanding the neurobiological basis influencing the motivation for voluntary physical activity in rodent models (exercise in humans). Integrating and considering physiological states will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of decision-making and motivated behaviors most relevant to the human condition.

motivation  

DiLeone received his BA in Biology-Chemistry at Skidmore College in 1992 and a PhD in Developmental Biology from Stanford University in 1998. He transitioned to neuroscience studies during postdoctoral work at Yale with Dr. Eric Nestler. After starting his lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas in 2001, Dr. DiLeone returned to Yale in 2004 as a member of the Ribicoff Research Facilities and the Department of Psychiatry and is currently a Professor of Psychiatry and of Neuroscience and a member of the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience at Yale.