Danielle Gulick, PhD

Dr. Danielle Gulick is an experienced neuroscientist and educator whose research focuses on how alcohol exposure and circadian rhythm disruption affect brain development and contribute to neurodegenerative disease. For over 20 years, her work—funded by the NIAAA, VA, Alzheimer’s Association, and the Ed and Ethel Moore Foundation—has advanced understanding of how adolescent alcohol use and environmental stressors shape neural circuits involved in reward, stress, and cognition. Her lab now investigates how circadian regulation in neurons and microglia influences synaptic connectivity and vulnerability to neurodegeneration and psychosis in Alzheimer’s disease.

Beyond the lab, Dr. Gulick directs the Neurology course for USF medical students and teaches in multiple graduate programs. She has mentored numerous graduate, medical, and undergraduate trainees, many of whom have gone on to successful careers in academia, medicine, and industry. She also founded a pre-matriculation program preparing aspiring medical students for research and academic success.