Principal Investigator

Katherine M. Serafine, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience

Dr. Serafine earned her B.A. in psychology from Norwich University in Northfield, VT., and her M.A. in psychology as well as her Ph.D. in Behavior, Cognition, and Neuroscience from American University in Washington, DC. Her dissertation research focused on the neurochemical mediation of the aversive effects of cocaine, using classical conditioning procedures. Dr. Serafine completed a postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral pharmacology at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, TX. Her research interests include the impact of diet and drug history on abuse vulnerability. Recently, Dr. Serafine's research has also focused on sex differences in drug sensitivity, and the neurochemical and behavioral overlap between drug abuse and food-related conditions, such as obesity and binge eating disorder. Dr. Serafine was appointed as a tenure track Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas at El Paso in 2015, and was selected to be the 2018-2019 ACNP/AMP Biomedical Research Awareness Day Fellow. In 2019, she was also named one of NIH's "Future Research Leaders". In September 2021, Dr. Serafine was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure. Dr. Serafine was also recently selected as the 2022/2023 American Psychological Association  Executive Branch Science Fellow.

Graduate Student

Nina Beltran

Nina is a second year PhD student at UTEP, but has been working in the lab since spring 2017 and became a UTEP RISE undergraduate scholar in 2018. As an undergraduate, Nina earned a competitive Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) through the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) for summer 2019, and was the very first person to graduate from UTEP with a B.S. in Neuroscience in December 2019. Nina is an active volunteer for Biomedical Research Awareness Day (BRAD) initiatives in El Paso, and recently presented her first year research project to the Department of Psychology. Nina is currently working on her master's thesis proposal .

Medical Student

Sanjana Mada
Medical Student Research Assistant

Sanjana is a 3rd year medical student at the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine in El Paso. Sanjana graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. Sanjana participated in pharmacology research in the past at UT Health San Antonio, examining the behavioral effects of benzylideneoxymorphine on opioid receptors. This summer Sanjana is contributing to an ongoing research collaboration between the Serafine laboratory and two faculty in Sociology/Anthropology at UTEP to examine stress among immigrant women seeking maternal health care in the Border region. Sanjana hopes to use these research experiences towards applications in addiction medicine as a practicing physician. 

Undergraduate Students

Isabella Castro
​Undergraduate Research Assistant
​2021 SMARTMIND Student

Bella is sophomore majoring in neuroscience. Bella joined the lab in the Fall of 2019 and completed a large conditioned place preference project in 2021 while participating in the UTEP SMARTMIND summer training program. Bella is getting ready to. begin a senior thesis project this fall. 

Madeline Elsey
UTEP BUILDing Scholar (2019-2022)
LSAMP PRELS Post Baccalaureate (2023) 

Madeline joined the lab when she was a Coronado High School senior in Fall of 2018. She graduated from Coronado and decided to continue her education at UTEP as a neuroscience major and began her appointment as a UTEP BUILDing Scholar in Fall 2019. Maddie graduated from UTEP in Fall 2022, after leading several projects, and participating In 2022 Maddie in the ASPET SURF Program! Maddie recently was selected to participate in the LSAMP PRELS post baccalaureate program at UTEP and is leading a new project in the lab. 

Natalia Martinez
Undergraduate Research Assistant/
​2023 SMARTMIND Summer Student

Natalia joined the lab in summer 2022 just after graduating 7th in her class at Americas High School in El Paso. Natalia is an incoming freshman at UTEP who will be studying psychology. She hopes to pursue a graduate degree in psychology after finishing her studies at UTEP.  Natalia was selected to participate in the UTEP SMARTMIND summer program for 2023!

Alyssa Parra 
2022 SMARTMIND Undergraduate Research Assistant 

Alyssa recently graduated with her degree in psychology from UTEP. She joined the lab through the UTEP SMARTMIND summer research program in 2022, and worked with Nina on her thesis project focused on the impact of diet on the antinociceptive effects of drugs. Alyssa recently accepted an offer of admission to begin her doctoral studies in Fall 2023!

We're looking for students like you!

We are currently recruiting graduate students!
​For more details on applying for graduate studies at UTEP please click the below link! For more info on how to join the lab as an undergraduate, please click visit the "join the lab" tab on our website.