Hilary Marusak
Position Title
Associate Professor
Office Address
Tolan Park Medical Building
3901 Chrysler Drive
Suite 2B, Room 259
Detroit, 48201
Office Phone
313-577-1278
Biography
Dr. Marusak is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Wayne State University (WSU) School of Medicine. Dr. Marusak received her PhD in Translational Neuroscience from WSU and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Dr. Christine Rabinak's Translational Neuropsychopharmacology lab in the WSU Department of Pharmacy Practice.
Dr. Marusak directs the WSU THINK Lab, which focuses on characterizing the impact of stress and trauma during childhood on brain development in children and adolescents, as well as, neurodevelopmental mechanisms leading to anxiety and other "fear-based" disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Specific areas of interest include:
- The impact of environmental adversity on brain and behavioral development in children and adolescents. This includes childhood trauma —such as interpersonal forms of trauma (e.g., violence, peer victimization) and medical-related trauma (e.g., cancer diagnosis, treatments), and also environmental toxicants (e.g., particulate matter air pollution, lead).
- The role of the endocannabinoid system in modulating frontolimbic brain development and risk of fear-based disorders.
- Behavioral (e.g. exercise, meditation) or pharmacological interventions (e.g., cannabidiol, CBD) that target the endocannabinoid system for the treatment and/or prevention of fear-based disorders in youth.
- The impact of prenatal cannabis exposure and adolescent cannabis use on neurodevelopmental and mental health outcomes.
- Effects of cannabis and cannabinoids on the brain and mental health outcomes.
Dr. Marusak was awarded postdoctoral fellowships from the National Institute of Mental Health and the American Cancer Society, and was the PI of a K01 Mentored Research Scientist Career Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Marusak is currently the PI of an NIMH Biobehavioral Research Awards for Innovative New Scientists (BRAINS) R01, and received a 2024 One Mind Rising Star Award for Mental Health Research. She is also the co-PI on an R21 Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (with Dr. Hannah Schacter), and the co-PI on a Veteran Marijuana Research Grant from the State of Michigan, Cannabis Regulatory Agency. She also holds Adjunct positions in the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute for Child and Family Development, the WSU Department of Pharmacology, serves as a faculty advisor to Science Policy Network-Detroit and Science Advisor for the nonprofit organization Kids Kicking Cancer, and is a Scientific Member of the Karmanos Cancer Institute and the WSU Center for Urban Responses to Environmental Stressors (CURES).
Dr. Marusak serves as Social Media Editor for the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, Chair of the Communications Task Force for the Society of Biological Psychiatry, cofounder and advisor to the student-led science-policy organization Science Policy Network-Detroit, and hosts the BrainSTEM podcast to provide evidence-based brain science information to the public.
Education Training
- B.A. Biology & Psychology, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI, 2011
- Ph.D. Translational Neuroscience, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, 2016
Postgraduate Training
- Postdoctoral fellowship, Affective Psychiatry, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, 2019
Clinical/Research Interests
- Pediatric anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Childhood adversity/trauma, including medical-related adversity (e.g., pediatric cancer)
- Developmental neuroscience
- Affective neuroscience
- Cannabis/Cannabinoids
- The endocannabinoid system