Dr. Amelia Cuarenta

Biography

Amelia Cuarenta is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on understanding how early life experiences contribute to phenotypes that alter the risk and resilience of developing psychiatric disorders. Cuarenta's investigations include the interactions between genetic and environmental factors, considering sex and developmental influences. Her specific areas of interest encompass how environmental experiences affect chromatin remodeling, epigenomic changes, and genomic alterations that relate to social and addictive behaviors across the lifespan. By integrating advanced molecular techniques such as single-cell RNA sequencing, bulk RNA sequencing, long-read sequencing, RNAscope, quantitative PCR, immunohistochemistry, and gene knockdown strategies with behavioral measurements, she aims to unravel the interaction of environment, genetics, and developmental processes on behavior. Currently, she is also in the process of recruiting PhD students for Fall 2026.

Research Interests