Dr. Brandon Harvey graduated in 2002 from the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York.  His thesis was entitled, “Herpes simplex virus-based vectors in neurons and glia: Transgene expression and immune response” and the work was done under the supervision of Howard J. Federoff, MD, PhD.  From 2002-2004, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). He was promoted to a research fellow in 2004 and then a staff scientist in 2006 in the Neural Protection and Regeneration Section, NIDA. From 2010 to present Dr. Harvey has been a visiting professor at Taiwan Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan. In 2010, he was promoted to associate scientist and in 2011 he was appointed as the director of Optogenetics and Transgenic Technology Core, NIDA, where he oversees the production of viral vectors and transgenic models for studies of the central nervous. Dr. Harvey has published 45 peer-reviewed articles since 2003.