Dr. Haynos may be accepting a student for the 2026-2027 application cycle (e.g., beginning studies in Fall 2027). Please check back in the fall for more updates.

The REPEAT Lab focuses on bridging together neuroscience, clinical science, and societal context which allows mutual feedback between mechanistic, intervention, and public health questions. Specifically, our lab is passionate about identifying the biological and behavioral mechanisms that promote disorders of behavioral rigidity. Further, we aim to use these mechanistic findings todevelop and adapt precise neuroscience-informed treatment for these disorders. Increasingly, the REPEAT Lab is interested in identifying how sociocultural factors influence neurobiology to produce cognitive and behavioral rigidity.

Most of Dr. Haynos’s recent and current grant-funded work has focused on anorexia nervosa and atypical anorexia nervosa, disorders characterized by rigid and persistent pursuit of weight loss. However, our lab investigates cognitive and behavioral rigidity as a transdiagnostic construct. We are especially interested in situations in which traits and behaviors that can be considered positive in some contexts (e.g., effort, self-control) go too far and become maladaptive. Several lab members are conducting lines of research that examine persistent and rigid behaviors that perpetuate other clinical concerns, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, suicidality, non-suicidal self-injury, work addiction, and management of chronic health conditions.

It is important that members of the REPEAT Lab demonstrate a genuine interest in interdisciplinary science and the translational research approach. This means having an openness to incorporating the perspectives, theories, and methods of multiple disciplines (e.g., neuroscience, computer science, biostatistics) to understanding complex clinical problems both at the mechanistic and applied level. We also seek individuals interested in studying how mechanisms commonly seen in eating disorders may be transdiagnostically shared or distinct with other disorders of behavioral rigidity.Ideal applicants will also have some interest in how broader sociocultural factors (e.g., stigma, discrimination, health disparities) may influence risk, maintenance, and treatment of eating disorders and other disorders of rigidity. Finally, it is vital that REPEAT Lab members embody the values of the lab, which include curiosity, inclusivity, and openness to challenge and growth.

While we are looking for graduate students that fit within the qualities described above, we also wish for students to provide a “value add” to the REPEAT Lab. In other words, we are looking for graduate students who can extend the work of the lab to their own novel interests and research programs that fall under the broad umbrella the REPEAT Lab focus. We value diverse and distinct perspectives, rather than exact replicas of Dr. Haynos or any other member of the lab!

Dr. Haynos primarily supervises students within the Behavioral Medicine concentration. For this reason, ideal applicants would be interested in working clinically at the interface between mental and physical health. Additionally, VCU has a strong commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice. An ideal applicant would demonstrate a strong commitment in these areas, either through research, clinical work, or advocacy. 

VCU has other areas of research strength, including in community engaged research, culturally-informed clinical models and treatment, mixed methods research, addictive disorders, women’s health, primary care, and genetics (see list of VCU institutes and centers here). Although it is not a requirement to work within any of these areas, this is another place in which fit to VCU’s resources may be considered.

The REPEAT Lab employs a multimodal translational neuroscience approach in its research. Across studies, multiple methods are used, including neuroimaging (resting state and task-based), neurocognitive tasks, ecological momentary assessment, objective measurement (e.g., laboratory test meal), and self-report via questionnaires and interviews. We use advanced statistical approaches and computational modeling across these various units of analysis. In addition, we have ongoing treatment research that allows exposure to clinical trial methods. 

There are opportunities to learn and be trained in each of these methods as a graduate student in the REPEAT Lab. No one method is prioritized within the lab; therefore, it is not necessary to have specific interests in any particular methodology (e.g., neuroimaging research). However, we find that the best student fits are those who have interest in the translational research approach, either at the mechanistic or treatment level.

Yes, I am open to co-mentorship! I highly value collaboration and hope to instill this value in my trainees as well. In most cases, I expect that students for whom I am the primary mentor will naturally develop collaborative or secondary mentorship relationships with other faculty and trainees. If you have a specific vision for co-primary mentorship with me and another faculty member, feel free to email me about this possibility. In most cases, this would be possible, but we would want to make sure both faculty members are able and willing to review your application.

The REPEAT lab regularly collaborates with the Translational Research on Eating and Affect (TREAT) lab run by Dr. Kelsey Hagan in the Psychiatry Department at VCU. This collaboration involves having some shared meetings (e.g., lab meetings and professional development meetings) and Dr. Haynos and Hagan frequently served as secondary mentors for each others’ mentees. The TREAT Lab focuses its research on [INSERT].