.jpg "Elisabeth Bloch-Salisbury, PhD photo")
Visiting Associate Professor
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Elisabeth Bloch-Salisbury, PhD, (aka Liz Salisbury) is a Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Salisbury’s research focuses on novel, non-pharmacologic interventions for improving short-term clinical events and longer-term neurodevelopmental outcomes in at-risk neonates. Dr. Salisbury completed her undergraduate studies at Rollins College, FL, and earned a master’s and doctorate in Biological Psychology from SUNY Stony Brook, NY. She received post-doctoral training at Harvard School of Public Health supported by NIH Research Training in Respiratory Biology, NIH Re-entry into Biomedical and Behavioral Research, and Paralyzed Veterans of America Spinal Cord Research Foundation. Dr. Salisbury’s graduate and post-doctoral research focused on neural mechanisms of respiratory sensation and perception in healthy adults and adults with spinal cord injury and neuromuscular disease. After the birth of her premature twins, Dr. Salisbury’s research interest shifted toward a program to improve infant health. She pursued clinical research in the NICU and Newborn Nursery with personal perspective. She established infrastructure to conduct studies at the bedside in neonatal and pediatric units, and aptly applied electrophysiologic techniques to measure pathophysiologic instabilities in the neonate. She segued from research fellow to faculty in the Departments of Neurology and Pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School where she served on faculty for 17 years prior to her appointment at Pitt in 2021. Over the last two decades, Dr. Salisbury has led intra- and extramural funded projects and has published study results in peer-reviewed journals. She is co-inventor on a patent for determining and reducing irritability in infants, including those affected by prenatal opioid exposure. Dr. Salisbury’s current NIDA funded clinical trial (NCT02801331) examines whether a prototype crib mattress that delivers gentle vibrations has potential as a therapeutic treatment for hospitalized newborns with prenatal opioid exposure.