As an addiction psychiatrist, Dr. Fellers has extensive experience treating patients with addictive disorders.  During his residency at UVA,  he gained clinical research experience recruiting, running, and managing medication trials that use the human laboratory for the evaluation of medications for substance use disorders.  Dr. Fellers further developed his research skills during postdoctoral training through the MIRECC (Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Centers) Fellowship.  He received additional mentorship and training in the design, implementation, and interpretation of clinical trials.

Dr. Fellers successfully obtained funding for a pilot project through a NIDA P50 Center while at Oregon Health & Sciences University, which enabled completion of a Phase 0 healthy volunteer study, and analysis is underway.  He seeks to develop more efficacious treatments for substance use disorders, with an emphasis on defining intermediate phenotypes to guide algorithms for personalized healthcare.