Devanand S. Manoli received his B.A., B.S., M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford University, completing his graduate work with Bruce Baker, using molecular genetic approaches to dissect the neural basis of sexual behavior in Drosophila. Manoli then decided to continue his clinical training in adult and child psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and focus his work on the neural basis of social attachment. For his postdoctoral work, he developed molecular genetic tools to understand the genes and neural circuits that control pair bonding and social attachment in prairie voles. Work in his lab uses these tools to understand the neural basis of social attachment and the mechanisms underlying attachment behaviors and how these circuits are disrupted in the context of neurodevelopment and psychiatric disorders. Their goals are eventually to understand how manipulation within specific neuronal populations may alleviate deficits in attachment across the spectrum of neurodevelopmental conditions and mental illness.
