Hi! I’m Travis Goode (“Good”)!

I (he/him) am a Research Fellow in Medicine (Postdoctoral Fellow) working in the Hippocampal Memory and Adult Neurogenesis Lab of Dr. Amar Sahay. We are housed in the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and are members of the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and the BROAD Institute of Harvard/MIT. Our lab uses cutting-edge preclinical circuit, genetic and molecular technologies, combined with rigorous cognitive tasks and behavioral analyses, to identify novel neural and behavioral motifs that be exploited for therapeutic relief for some of the world’s most challenging mental illnesses. You can learn more about my previous and ongoing research here!

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I am a first-generation college graduate and scientist, with strong research interests and expertise in the neurobiology of affective learning and memory, especially as it relates to psychiatric disease. I grew up in East Tennessee—like far too many families, my family was devastated by addiction. I have experienced firsthand the burden that mental illness can place on a family, and I am now committed to promoting and improving therapeutic treatments for psychiatric disease—I believe in basic neuroscience research as an essential tool in widening accessibility and improving therapies.

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I have a decade+ of experience in preclinical circuit and behavioral neuroscience research. I received my Bachelor’s (BA) in Psychology (Biology Minor) from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2011, where I worked in the lab of Dr. Matthew A. Cooper. In 2018, I completed my Ph.D. in Neuroscience in the lab of Dr. Stephen Maren at Texas A&M University-College Station. I am grateful to have been supported by a number of prestigious awards throughout my career, including a predoctoral F31 NRSA, a Young Investigator Grant from BBRF, and (for my current project) a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institute of Mental Health.

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Moving forward, I aim to establish a fun, inclusive, and high-caliber basic neuroscience laboratory that studies the neurobiological bases of learning, memory, and motivation. I am committed to fostering a responsible, healthy, and exciting research environment, with an emphasis on supporting and growing next-gen researchers, and in doing all I can to help increase our knowledge about the brain and translating these preclinical insights for therapeutics outcomes.

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Outside of the lab, you can find me playing guitar/video games, running/working out, and spending time with the cutest dog in the world, Luna B. Goode, Ph.D. (pictured below).