Lamyaa Dawud

Dr. Lamya'a M. Dawud earned her B.A. and M.S. in Integrative Physiology from the University of Colorado Boulder and her Ph.D. in Integrative Systems Biology from the University of Colorado Denver. Her dissertation explored how post-weaning social isolation affects social fear conditioning and the mTOR pathway in brain regions involved in emotion regulation.

Initially focused on behavioral neuroscience, Dr. Dawud grew interested in the gut-brain-immune axis and psychoneuroimmunology. During her first postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Christopher Lowry, she studied the effects of Mycobacterium vaccae on stress-related outcomes in mice and developed expertise in gut microbiome analysis.

Her growing interest in sleep and circadian rhythms led her to clinical research with Dr. Josiane Broussard, investigating the physiological effects of shift work. She now trains in microbiology and immunology in Dr. Marcela Henao Tamayo’s lab, aiming to integrate her experience to explore how environmental factors impact the gut-microbiota-immune-brain axis.