Dr. Kohno is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and a Research Scientist at the VA Portland Health Care System. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from UC Berkeley and completed her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at UCLA, where her dissertation was the first to reveal abnormalities in intrinsic brain activity in methamphetamine use disorder and to clarify dopamine’s role in risky decision-making. Dr. Kohno has since advanced her work to uncover neurobiological and immunological biomarkers that can serve as targets for therapeutic intervention for substance use disorders.

Leading the Biomedical Research of Addiction, Imaging, and Neuroscience (BRAIN) Lab, Dr. Kohno’s research emphasizes mechanistic neuroscience at neural systems and molecular levels, merging basic science with clinically impactful aims. Dr. Kohno is the principal investigator for two ongoing clinical trials that use advanced neuroimaging techniques to test whether medications can reduce neuroinflammation, improve brain function, and reduce drug use. Notably, recent funding supports further exploration of sex-specific responses, addressing the underrepresentation of women in addiction research.

Dr. Kohno has published extensively on the molecular mechanisms behind brain dysfunction in addiction and the impact of psychosocial, behavioral, and genetic factors on clinical outcomes. She is also an associate editor for Frontiers in Psychiatry, serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for multiple journals, and teaches an advanced psychology course at the University of Portland.