Research Pathway Trainees

Emily Przysinda, MD, PhD (PGY-1 Resident)

Dr. Emily Przysinda is a first-year psychiatry resident at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), where she completed her MD and PhD. Her doctoral research focused on social and language processing in schizophrenia. Supported by an NIH F30 fellowship, she used fMRI and EEG to examine differences between individuals with psychosis spectrum disorders and controls in how the brain tracks social and language features while watching The Office TV show. Her work includes a first-author publication in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, presentations at national conferences, and awards from the Society of Biological Psychiatry and the Society for Neuroscience. Her broader research interests at URMC include using neuroimaging and naturalistic video paradigms to investigate complex cognitive processes across clinical populations, including individuals with chronic pain, depression, and schizophrenia. Through URMC’s psychiatry residency research pathway, she is building on her research experience and clinical training to develop as an independent physician-scientist.

Mounir Fakhouri, MD (PGY-3 Resident)

Dr. Mounir Fakhouri is a third-year psychiatry resident at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He received his MD from Lebanese American University and completed his undergraduate training at Lebanese American University. His research interests center on mood disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders, with broader interests in clinical trials, psychiatric nosology, statistical interpretation, and the critical evaluation of evidence in psychiatry. He has been engaged in clinical research, scholarly writing, and clinical trial activities at URMC, and is developing an early-stage prototype designed to help clinicians more transparently compare and evaluate evidence from clinical trials. Dr. Fakhouri has presented two posters at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, including work on tamoxifen in mania and illness anxiety in Lebanon. He is mentored by Dr. Paulo Lizano and Dr. Anton Porsteinsson and is developing his research pathway experience around gaining expertise in the design, conduct, and interpretation of clinical trials.

Nihat Dogrul, MD (PGY-4 Resident, Research Chief)

Dr. B. Nihat Dogrul is a fourth-year psychiatry resident at the University of Rochester Medical Center and currently serves as Research Chief Resident, a role in which he helps coordinate research activities and mentorship for residents across the program. He received his MD from Gulhane Medical School in Turkiye, completed his postdoctoral research studies at the University of Arizona, and has developed expertise in chronic pain and neuromodulation. During his residency, Dr. Dogrul has worked on a pilot randomized trial investigating the neuromodulatory effects of neuronavigation-based transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in fibromyalgia and their correlates in functional neuroimaging, funded by the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience. He is mentored by Dr. Paul Geha and is preparing for a Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship. As Research Chief, he plays a central role in building the culture of scholarship and inquiry within the URMC psychiatry residency program.

Jaewon Lee, MD (Faculty, Department of Psychiatry, URMC)

Dr. Jaewon Lee is a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She received an MD from The Catholic University of Korea and an MPH in Applied Biostatistics and Epidemiology from Yale University, followed by psychiatry residency training at the University of Rochester. Dr. Lee’s research interests are in psychiatric epidemiology, with recent work on women’s suicide in relation to substance use and changing life circumstances across the life span. She places value on translating clinical observations into research questions and disseminating meaningful scholarly findings to broader audiences. Her current clinical interests include early psychosis, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and the interplay between mental and physical health. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including JAMA Psychiatry and Psychiatry Research. She has also received a trainee research grant from the New York Society of Addiction Medicine and a poster award from the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry. At URMC, Dr. Lee is actively involved in resident research education and mentoring, contributing to the department’s mission of developing the next generation of physician-scientists in psychiatry.