Dr. Stacey J Sukoff Rizzo is an Associate Director, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Director PITT Preclinical Phenotyping Core; Co-Head MODEL-AD Preclinical Testing Core. Dr. Rizzo is a behavior pharmacologist by training and holds a BS in Animal Sciences from Rutgers University and a PhD in Neuroscience from University College London. Prior to joining The Jackson Laboratory in 2014, Dr. Rizzo held positions in the pharmaceutical industry in Neuroscience Drug Discovery departments at Wyeth Ayerst Research, Merck Research Laboratories, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, and Pfizer where she led and contributed to many drug discovery projects across therapeutic areas. During her tenure with Pfizer, Dr. Rizzo served as Principal Scientist and Interim Head of Pfizer’s Autism In Vivo Group and Group Leader of Pfizer’s Neurobehavioral Core where she was responsible for identifying robust and reliable behavioral phenotypes in animal models of Neuropsychiatric (depression, anxiety, schizophrenia), Neurodegenerative (Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons, and Huntington’s Diseases), Autism Spectrum Disorders and Addiction that could be employed to assess the utility of novel therapeutic agents. Dr. Rizzo is an internationally recognized expert in behavioral phenotyping of mouse models of disease.
