Stuti Bansal

Stuti is a 3rd year MD-PhD student from the Bay Area, California. She completed her undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley, graduating with a degree in Neurobiology. While there, she worked in various labs, trying to find her research interest - a circadian rhythm lab working with mice, a public health research group, a psychiatry lab at the VA, and a cognitive neuroscience lab. At the cognitive neuroscience lab, she completed her senior thesis as part of a larger project using fMRI and neuro-navigated TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) to test the causal role of specific brain regions on working memory. 

After undergrad, Stuti became a post-bac research fellow at the NIH through the IRTA program. She worked for Dr. Karen Berman, where she was part of various projects investigating brain anatomy and function in healthy adults and children, children with Williams' Syndrome, and adults with schizophrenia. Her independent research project investigated the genetics underlying individual differences in dopamine synthesis capacity, as measured by PET (Positron Emission Topography) imaging. 

As a 3rd year at Mt. Sinai, Stuti is just starting her PhD at the Depression and Anxiety Center. Her mentors are Dr. Yael Jacob, Dr. Laurel Morris, and Dr. James Murrough, with whom she will be investigating the neural underpinnings of depression and anxiety symptoms in patients with psychiatric disorders. 

Outside of school and lab, Stuti enjoys spending time with her partner and cats, having dinner with friends, gardening, doing crochet and embroidery projects, and reading fantasy books.