Dr. Alex Kwan

Dr. Kwan’s team is using groundbreaking optical imaging to visualize how psychiatric drugs alter brain circuits, accelerating the development of safer, more effective antidepressants.

Dr. Alex Kwan is a neuroscientist and Associate Professor at Cornell University, where his lab combines systems neuroscience and neuroengineering to study the neural basis of mental health. He earned his Ph.D. in applied physics from Cornell and completed postdoctoral training in neuroscience at UC Berkeley. The Kwan Lab develops optical imaging tools to visualize brain activity in awake mice and investigates how psychiatric drugs—such as ketamine and psychedelics—alter neural circuits to produce antidepressant effects. Their goal is to advance safer, more effective treatments for depression through novel drug screening and circuit-level insight.