Dr. Summer Thompson

Biography

Dr. Thompson’s research investigates integrative mechanisms underlying environmental influences on reward-related behaviors and altered neuropsychiatric conditions. She earned her PhD in 2017 from the University of Chicago in Neurobiology, training under Dr. Stephanie Dulawa. Her graduate work employed models of compulsive-like behavior to investigate mechanisms of therapeutic targets. Dr. Thompson accepted a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Dr. Jane Taylor at Yale University, where she received training in operant and computational modeling approaches for studying reward-driven behaviors in the context of neuropsychiatric conditions and compulsive disorders associated with alcohol use. In 2021, Dr. Thompson was promoted to Associate Research Scientist at Yale and was awarded a pathway independence career development award by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (K99/R00) to study the role of gut microbiota in alcohol use behaviors and decision making, co-mentored by Dr. Taylor and Dr. Noah Palm from the Department of Immunobiology. Her ongoing and future research focuses on exploring the mediating role of gut and environmental influences on reward-driven behaviors using sophisticated behavioral paradigms, computational modeling, statistical analyses, and multi-organ molecular biology techniques including omics and bioinformatics.

Research Interests