Dr. Asya Rolls is an Assistant Prof. at the Rappaport Medical School, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology and an International Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)-Wellcome investigator. She obtained her PhD from the Weizmann Institute, Israel and completed her postdoctoral training at the Psychiatry Department at Stanford University, CA as a Fulbright Scholar.
Dr. Rolls studies the physiological mechanisms whereby emotions and thoughts affect physical health. Her laboratory uses chemogenetic, optical, and behavioral approaches to investigate how specific brain activity affects the immune response. By deciphering the neuronal pathways mediating brain-immune signals, her work aims to harness the brain’s therapeutic potential.
Dr. Rolls is an elected member of the FENS-KAVLI network of excellence (2015-2019). Her work has been recognized through number of awards including the NARSAD Young Investigator Award, Krill Prize (Wolf Foundation), the Adelis Brain Research Award and the ERC starting grant.