Alik Widge, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry

Alik Widge

Contact Info

awidge@umn.edu

Office Phone 612-625-7594

Office Address:
3-208 McGuire Translational Research Facility (MTRF)

Mailing Address:
LRB/MTRF
2001 6th Street SE
2873 (campus mail code)
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Administrative Assistant Name
Gregg Helmberger

Administrative Phone
612-273-9714

Administrative Email
helmb008@umn.edu

Administrative Fax Number
612-273-9779

Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry


MD, University of Pittsburgh

Residency in Psychiatry, University of Washington

PhD, Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University

BA, Computer Science & Cognitive Science, Dartmouth College

Postdoctoral Researcher, Biophysics, Neurophysiology, Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington

Research Fellow, Interventional Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital

Research Fellow, Picower Institute for Learning & Memory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Summary

Dr. Widge is a psychiatrist and biomedical engineer. Clinically, he provides brain stimulation treatments for mood, anxiety, and substance disorders. These include deep brain stimulation, cortical stimulation, and transcranial magnetic stimulation. His research focuses on developing these treatments further, particularly the creation of new "closed loop" devices. These devices sense brain signals in real-time and deliver energy in a planned and rational fashion, compensating for each patient's specific brain network abnormalities. Dr. Widge's laboratory prototypes new stimulation paradigms and targets in rodent models, conducts clinical trials of these new technologies, and searches for biomarkers of illness and recovery to guide next-generation therapies.

Awards & Recognition

  • 2011 Outstanding Resident Award, National Institute of Mental Health
  • 2017 Rising Star Translational Research Award, OneMind Institute
  • 2017 Associate Membership in American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
  • 2018 Young Investigator Award, Sage Bionetworks

Professional Associations

  • American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • American Medical Association
  • Society for Neuroscience
  • American Psychiatric Association
  • Society for Biological Psychiatry
  • American College of Neuropsychopharmacology

Research

Research Summary/Interests

Our laboratory develops new ways of modifying brain circuits to treat mental illness. We take a "dimensional" approach, breaking mental disorders into their core components that cut across diagnoses. We use a variety of tools, including electrical, magnetic, and optical stimulation, to change those circuits in a way we hope will translate to humans.

Research Funding Grants

6/1/2014 – 5/30/2019, W911NF-14-2-0045 (Dougherty/Eskandar)
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency $7,584,647
Transdiagnostic Restoration of Affective Networks by Systematic, Function-Oriented, Real-time Modeling and Deep Brain Stimulation (TRANSFORM DBS)

8/1/2016 – 7/31/2019 (NCE), R21 MH109722-01A1 (Widge)
NIH/NIMH $150,000
Synchronizing a Fear Regulation Circuit by Temporally Patterned Closed-Loop Neurostimulation

9/1/2016 – 8/30/2021, UH3 NS100548-01 (Dougherty/Widge)
NIH/NINDS $364,456
Combined Cortical and Subcortical Recording and Stimulation as a Circuit-Oriented Treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

9/1/2016 – 8/30/2020, R01 MH111872 (Anikeeva)
NIH/NIMH $91,972
Multi-Site Non-Invasive Magnetothermal Excitation and Inhibition of Deep Brain Structures

5/1/2017 – 4/30/2020, R01 MH111917-01A1 (Dougherty/Makris)
NIH/NIMH $474,649
Patient-specific, Effective, and Rational Functional Connectivity Targeting for DBS in OCD (PERFECT DBS)

9/1/2017 – 8/31/2019, R21 MH113103-01A1 (Widge) 
NIH/NIMH $150,000
Engineering Plasticity and Connectivity in a Fear Regulation Circuit

Clinical

Board Certifications

General Psychiatry