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Dr. Cassella earned her PhD in neuroscience from the University of Cincinnati. Following her graduate training, Dr. Cassella completed a teaching post-doctoral fellowship at Susquehanna University where she was able to develop her teaching and pursue research interests through collaborations at SU and Bucknell University. Dr. Cassella currently teaches courses in the neuroscience and psychology programs including drugs and human behavior (PSY 285), neuropsychiatric disease, and neurobiology. Dr. Cassella has two main research interests:

• investigating the role of prenatal stress on microglial dysfunction and psychiatric disease and
• the role of opioid receptors in regulating brain inflammation.

The research in the lab draws from multiple STEM disciplines and utilizes a variety of cellular/molecular and behavioral methodologies in order fully understand interactions amongst stress, inflammation, and psychiatric disease. These questions and the skills used to explore them should be relevant to students who are interested in psychology, neuroscience, and biology and their roles in psychiatric disease.