David David Shannahoff-Khalsa formed The Research Group for Mind-Body Dynamics in 1994 at the Institute for Nonlinear Science (now The BioCircuits Institute), University of California, San Diego. Prior to coming to UCSD he spent 23 years at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, first working on the building blocks of the genetic code, and then pioneering novel studies in the neurosciences. In 2011 he became a member of the University of California, San Diego, Center for Integrative Medicine.

The Research Group for Mind-Body Dynamics is pioneering novel clinical approaches for treating psychiatric, sleep, and cardiovascular disorders; devising new methods for doing high resolution spatial-temporal analysis of whole-brain imaging using state-of-the-art instrumentation (148 and 306 channel magnetoencephalography) at The Scripps Research Institute, UCSD, and the University of Catania, Sicily; and discovering new insights to mind-body rhythms during sleep and waking states at UCSD and UCLA. He is also pioneering novel breakthroughs for the 4th most common psychiatric disorder (obsessive compulsive disorder) with colleagues in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Sao Paulo, Duke University, and Yale University.

Shannahoff-Khalsa's popular writing has appeared in American Health and Psychology Today. His scientific articles are many, with some published by the American Journal of Physiology, CNS Spectrums:The International Journal of Neuropsychiatric Medicine, Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention (in press), International Journal of Psychophysiology, International Journal of Neuroscience, Life Sciences, Biological Psychology, Human Neurobiology, Gastroenterology Nursing, Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine Journal, IEEE Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Physical Review E, Cancer Research, Biochemistry, and the Journal of Organic Chemistry. He has also contributed chapters to prestigious medical texts, three include Oxford University Press - Social Workers’ Desk Reference, second edition, Marcel Dekker, Inc. books - OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDERS: Diagnosis, Etiology, and Treatment, and STRESS: NEUROBIOLOGY AND NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY..

Speaking regularly at national and international conferences - presentations include: Two Full Day 6-hour CME Courses at the 165th (2012), 164th (2011), and 163rd (2010) Annual Meeting, American Psychiatric Association, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Oct 2010, The National Institute for Developmental Psychiatry, Inauguration Conference, Psychiatry for Development of Infants and Adolescents, A New Paradigm for Psychiatry, "A Novel Non-invasive Approach for the Treatment of Children and Adolescents at Risk for the Development of Psychiatric Disorders," Department of Psychiatry, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 19-20, 2009; 161st Annual Meeting, American Psychiatric Association, Full Day 6 Hour Accredited CME Course,"Kundalini Yoga Meditation Techniques for Psychiatric Disorders" May 3, 2008, Washington, DC; 160th Annual Meeting, American Psychiatric Association, Full Day 6 Hour Accredited CME Course, "Kundalini Yoga Meditation Techniques for Mental Health" May 20, 2007, San Diego, California; 159th Annual Meeting, American Psychiatric Association, Full Day 6 Hour Accredited CME Course, "Kundalini Yoga Meditation Techniques for Mental Health" May 21, 2006, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 158th Annual Conference, American Psychiatric Association, 6 Hour Full Day Course entitled "Kundalini Yoga Meditation Techniques for Psychiatric Disorders" May 22, 2005, Atlanta, Georgia; Whole Person Health Summit, Ayurvedic Medicine, The Other Asian Wisdom, Bethesda, Maryland, April 14-17, 2005, Lecture - A Highlight of Novel Studies in Mind-Body Medicine Based on Concepts and Techniques from Kundalini Yoga; Workshop - An Experiential Workshop with Kundalini Yoga Meditation Techniques Specific for Treating Fatigue, Anxiety, and Depression; 157th Annual Conference, American Psychiatric Association, workshop, "Kundalini Yoga Meditation Techniques for Psychiatric Disorders", New York City; 156th American Psychiatric Association Annual Conference, Symposium on OCD, San Francisco, CA;Cyber Physiology and Self Regulation in Pediatrics, Children's Hospital and Health Center, Children's Integrative Medicine, San Diego; The 7th and 8th Obsessive Compulsive Foundation Annual Conference (Chicago, Denver); The Alternative Medicine Program Advisory Council at NIH (Washington D.C.); The 6th International Music Medicine Symposium (Texas); The 6th International Congress of Psychophysiology (Berlin, Germany); The Asian Conference on Chronobiology and Chronomedicine (Chengdu, China); The 5th International Congress of Psychophysiology (Budapest, Hungary); The International Child and Youth Care Conference (Washington, DC); The First International Conference on Energy Medicine (Madras, India); The Third International Conference on Multiple Personality/Dissociative States, Chicago.

He has also been an advisor to the Pentagon, the National Research Council Committee on Techniques to Enhance Human Performance, the California Task Force to Promote Self Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility, and an editorial advisor for several scientific journals.