Erin Kinnally, Ph.D. (UC Davis)
Principal Investigator, Department of Psychology
Erin Kinnally is a biological psychologist with expertise in the fields of primate behavior, neuroscience, and epigenomics. Dr. Kinnally obtained her PhD at the University of California, Davis and was a Paul Janssen Postdoctoral Fellow in Translational Neuroscience at Columbia University. She is an Associate Professional Researcher in the department of Psychology at UC Davis and a core scientist at the California National Primate Research Center. She is also the director of the Biobehavioral Assessment program at the CNPRC. Recent funding sources include NIA, NICHD, NIAID, NIMH, NIH Office of the Director, the Harry Frank Guggenheim foundation, the Escher Foundation for Autism, and the UC Davis Center for Perinatal Origins of Disease. She is on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Primatology and Environmental Epigenetics.
Lesly Ceniceros, B.S. (UC Davis)
Graduate Student, Department of Psychology
Lesly Ceniceros is a Biological Psychology PhD student in the Kinnally lab. She earned her B.S in Human Development from UC Davis and has been largely interested in studying the biological and behavioral underpinnings of health and disease across lifespan. Her current research explores biological clocks of aging, as well as the impact of inflammatory diets on cognition.
Anthony Paul Brown, Ph.D. (Washington State)
Programmer, CNPRC
Anthony Brown is a bioinformatician/data wrangler and analyst in the Kinnally Lab. He graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, then went on to get a PhD in Biology from Washington State University. His PhD research focused on the genomic basis of adaptation in extremophile fishes. More recently, his work has centered on the role of epigenetic regulation in responses to environmental exposures such as allergens and wildfire smoke. His current work focuses on identifying factors that influence longevity in rhesus macaques and on managing and analyzing large-scale behavioral assessment data.
Bidisha Chakraborty, Ph.D. (UC Davis)
Postdoctoral Fellow, CNPRC
Bidisha is a postdoctoral scholar in the Kinnally Lab at CNPRC, where she works on the Biobehavioral Assessment (BBA) project examining individual differences in infant rhesus monkeys’ responses to mild challenges and social stimulus, as well as their temperament, and physiological outcomes. Her research centers on resilience, that is, how individuals navigate socioecological fluctuations using their sociodemographic traits and social relationships. She has pursued these questions across a wide range of species from ants and horses to primates including Hanuman langurs, hoolock gibbons, and rhesus macaques. For her PhD in Animal Behavior, she combined social network analysis, behavioral observations, and agent-based modeling to investigate individual cost–benefit tradeoffs while engaging in risky acitivites such as intergroup conflict and human–wildlife interactions at a popular tourist site in North India. She is now expanding her focus to the physiological and health outcomes of behavior, exploring how intrinsic traits and external environments together shape well-being in both animals and humans. When not thinking about behavioral dynamics or infant macaques, she’s usually caffeinating or hanging out with cats.
Ashley Cunningham, B.S. (UC Davis)
Junior Specialist, CNPRC
Ashley Cunningham is a junior specialist in the Kinnally Lab. She graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in Psychology, and came to the Kinnally Lab from the Bales Lab for Comparative Neurobiology of Monogamy where she studied the duet vocalizations of pair bonded titi monkeys. During her undergraduate studies, she studied the effects of maternal immune activation on offsprings’ cognition as a research assistant in the Hanks Lab. She is interested in studying the health effects, particularly on cognitive functions, of social bonding dynamics within aging populations.
Riya Subedi, B.A. (UC Santa Cruz)
Junior Specialist, CNPRC
Riya Subedi joined the Kinnally Lab as a junior specialist in 2024 after graduating with a B.A. in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz. She is interested in studying cognitive health across human and animal populations and plans to pursue this focus in a graduate program in the future.
Ansh Jain, B.S. (UC Davis)
Research Assistant, CNPRC
Ansh Jain is a recent graduate of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior at UC Davis. Ansh was awarded the outstanding scholar and distinguished senior in his NPB graduating class. He is interested in learning about the interactions between genetics (especially epigenetics) and real-world behavior. He is also intrigued with the manifestations of autism-like characteristics in primates. He plans to attend medical school in the future.
Kevin Chung, B.S. Candidate (UC Davis)
Kevin Chung is 3rd year Animal Science major. He loves playing badminton, singing, and trying out new coffee shops for fun!
Shreya Dandamudi, B.S. Candidate (UC Davis)
Shreya Dandamudi is a 4th-year UC Davis student majoring in Human Biology. She is an aspiring medical student, and she is passionate about biobehavioral research. She has been actively involved in organizing blood drives as part of UC Davis Pre-Med AMSA and is currently working as the Community Service Co-Chair. She volunteers at Bayanihan Clinic and enjoys playing tennis in her free time.
Spoorthi Hegde, B.S. Candidate (UC Davis)
Spoorthi Hegde is a current 3rd year undergraduate in UC Davis, majoring in Genetics and Genomics and minoring in Psychology. She is interested in studying behavioral epigenetics and hopes to pursue the field of Genetic Counseling.
Tanya Milovic, B.S. Candidate (UC Davis)
Tanya Milovic is a 4th year Cell Biology major. Her academic interests include cellular biology and genetics, with a focus on their connections to health.
Past Kinnally Lab Members
Sophia Lunardi, B.S. (UC Davis)
Sophia Lunardi is a recent graduate at the University of California, Davis. She is working towards a B.S. in Quantitative Psychology with a minor in Neuroscience. In the Kinnally Lab, she was an APA SUPER fellow, conducting research on depression during pregnancy and the impact of infant development. In the future, she would like to attend graduate school and continue to work in psychology research. She is currently working as an applied behavioral analyst in Sacramento.