Members

Eric Nestler, MD, PhD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, DTF Chair
Expertise: Molecular neurobiology of drug addiction and depression; transcriptional and epigenetic regulation in the brain.

Huda Akil, PhD, University of Michigan
Expertise: Lead researcher of genes and proteins that cause vulnerability to major depression; expert in the brain biology of emotions, stress and depression.

Elisabeth Binder, MD, PhD
Expertise: Studies the pharmacogenetics of antidepressant drugs as well as gene x environment interactions in mood and anxiety disorders, with a focus on genes regulating the stress hormone response.

Kafui Dzirasa, MD, PhD, Duke University
Expertise: Studies how neuropsychiatric risk genes interact with environmental stress to modify neural circuits that underlie normal emotional and cognitive function.

René Hen, PhD, Columbia University
Expertise: Investigates specific serotonin receptors as well as hippocampal neurogenesis in pathological states such as depression and anxiety; expert in neurogenetics.

Jonathan Javitch, MD, PhD, Columbia University & New York State Psychiatric Institute
Expertise: Studies the structure, function, and regulation of G protein-coupled receptors and neurotransmitter transporters, the targets of antipsychotic drugs, psychostimulants and antidepressants; expert in molecular pharmacology.

Conor Liston, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine Feil Family Brain & Mind Research Institute
Expertise: Studies the circuit mechanisms by which neurons in the prefrontal cortex contribute to cognitive and emotional processes and how they are disrupted in neuropsychiatric disease states.

Helen Mayberg, MD, Emory University
Expertise: Examines neural systems mediating mood and emotions with a primary emphasis on major depression and its recovery; pioneer in Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) as a therapeutic for treatment resistant depression.

Bruce McEwen, PhD, Rockefeller University
Expertise: Investigates stress effects on brain centers involved in emotion, fear memory and mood control; expert in the neuroscience of stress and emotion.

Michael Meaney, PhD, Douglas Institute & McGill University
Expertise: Studies early environmental regulation of gene expression and brain development; expert in epigenetics.