Kavli ScholarRafael E. Perez

Rafael E. Perez investigates how experience shapes opioid analgesia, pain, and vulnerability to tolerance and addiction. His research examines how contextual and experiential cues encode persistent neural states within cortical and corticospinal circuits that regulate spinal and brain-wide processes underlying opioid responses. By integrating circuit neuroscience, behavioral pharmacology, and systems-level approaches, his work seeks to define how experience-dependent neural programs drive long-term adaptations to opioids.

Dr. Perez earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Vanderbilt University under the mentorship of Dr. Danny Winder, where he trained in molecular and circuit mechanisms of stress, reward, and neuromodulatory systems. He then completed postdoctoral training in the Yale Department of Psychiatry, expanding his work to examine how neural circuits governing pain and analgesia are shaped by experience and context. He is currently an Associate Research Scientist in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at Yale School of Medicine, where he works with Dr. Marina Picciotto and integrates circuit-level, behavioral, and systems neuroscience approaches to study opioid-mediated outcomes.

Throughout his training, Dr. Perez has been recognized with honors supporting excellence and diversity in neuroscience, including the NIH Loan Repayment Program and the Kavli Institute at Yale Postdoctoral Award for Academic Diversity. He is deeply committed to mentorship, scientific outreach, and advancing inclusive, data-driven frameworks that increase the visibility and success of early-career scientists from underrepresented backgrounds.