Staci Ann Gruber is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

and Director of the Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Core (CCNC) and the Marijuana Investigation for Neuroscientific Discovery (MIND) Program. She is known for her work examining substance use and psychiatric conditions using advanced neuroimaging techniques and measures of cognitive performance.

Education and career

In 1991 Gruber received both a B.S. from

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

and a B.Mus. from the New England Conservatory of Music. In 1995 she earned an Ed.M. from

Harvard Graduate School of Education The Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is the education school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1920, it was the first school to grant the EdD degree and the first Harvard school ...

. She received an M.S. from

in 2000, and in 2002 went on to earn her Ph.D. from Tufts University where she explored the Stroop effect and differential response of subregions within the cingulate cortex in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder using functional MRI. As of 2022 she is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at

and the director of the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery (MIND) Program at

McLean Hospital McLean Hospital () (formerly known as Somerville Asylum and Charlestown Asylum) is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. It is noted for its clinical staff expertise and neuroscience research and is also known for the large number of ...

Research

Her current research is dedicated to examining the impact of cannabis and cannabinoids on various health outcomes using comprehensive an longitudinal clinical ratings, cognitive assessments, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, including

functional magnetic resonance imaging Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area o ...

(fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Her research is funded and supported by government grants, philanthropy/private donations, and industry. Dr. Gruber’s earlier work focused on the application of neurocognitive models and brain imaging to better characterize neurobiological risk factors for psychopathology; she is a co-author on some of the first published findings in patients with psychotic disorders using proton MRS and fMRI techniques. Her work in cannabis initially focused on clarifying the impact of age of onset of recreational cannabis use. Her findings demonstrated that individuals who began using cannabis earlier exhibit poorer performance on measures on cognitive performance and altered patterns of brain structure and function relative to those who began using cannabis later and relative to those who do not use cannabis. In 2014, she founded the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery (MIND) program which is specifically focused on examining the specific effects of medical cannabis use. MIND examines the impact of medical cannabis using observational, longitudinal, and survey studies, as well as clinical trials of cannabinoid-based products. The Women’s Health Initiative at MIND (WHIM), a cannabis-focused women’s health research program, conducts studies related to sexual/reproductive health and disorders that disproportionately affect women as well as some transgender and non-binary individuals. In 2017, Gruber stated that with regard to cannabis, "policy has outpaced science". Some of her research is conducted with private funding due to the federal government's placement of cannabis in Schedule I, having no accepted medical use. Gruber testified before the United States Congress in 2019 as an expert on the psychiatric effects of cannabis; her appearance was said by a cannabis industry newspaper to have provided the "most persuasive and thoughtful testimony" in the hearing, titled "Marijuana and America’s Health: Questions and Issues for Policy Makers". Gruber is an advisor to the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation, formed in 2021.

Selected publications

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Personal life

Gruber and her spouse

Patricia Cornwell Patricia Cornwell (born Patricia Carroll Daniels; June 9, 1956) is an American crime writer. She is known for her best-selling novels featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, of which the first was inspired by a series of sensational murders in ...

live in Massachusetts. They wed in 2006."Crime pays quite well for Patricia Cornwell"
''USA Today'' December 3, 2008 Gruber is Jewish. She is a singer, and recorded 1 album .

References

External links