Carrie Ferrario, Ph.D.

Carrie Ferrario is an Associate Professor with tenure in the Departments of Pharmacology and Psychology at the University of Michigan. Her lab examines the neurobiological mechanisms of food craving and how these processes are influenced by consumption of sugary, fatty, “junk-food” diets and individual susceptibility to obesity. Her work in this area also addresses potential behavioral similarities and differences between over-consumption of food vs. addictive drugs. She earned her BA in Psychology and English from Indiana University in Bloomington where she studied classical eyeblink conditioning in the lab of Dr. Joseph Steinmetz. She earned her PhD in Neuroscience in 2006 from the University of Michigan where she trained with Terry Robinson studying the neurobehavioral underpinnings of drug addiction. She went on to conduct postdoctoral training with Drs. Marina Wolf, Margaret Gnegy and Les Satin where she developed expertise in biochemistry and glutamatergic plasticity. Since establishing her lab in 2014, Dr. Ferrario’s scientific contributions have been acknowledged by receipt of a NARSAD Young Investigator Award, the Early Career Independent Investigator Award from ASPET, the Alan Epstein Award from SSIB, and the Henry Russel Award from UM, the highest university honor awarded to early career faculty. She has served as a UM Faculty Ally for Diversity, on the ACNP DEI Task Force, and the UM Pharmacology DEI Committee. Dr. Ferrario is currently the Pharmacology Department Postdoc Chair, co-Director of the UM Biology of Drug Abuse T32, a member of the Editorial board for Physiology and Behavior, and an Associate Member of the ACNP.