Scientific Advisory Board
Purpose:
The Scientific advisory board consists of our nation’s leading scientist and psychiatrists. Their role is to review scientific research proposals and advice the executive board on which to award research dollars. There are many unanswered questions about bipolar disorder-what causes it? What are the genetics of it? How should we treat it? At this point, there is still so much yet to be discovered. IBPF is determined to be part of the answer-by providing funding for research.
Husseini K. Manji, M.D.
Co-Chair
Husseini K. Manji, M.D., is global therapeutic area head, neuroscience research and development, a position he assumed in March 2009. He joined Johnson & Johnson in October 2008 to lead research and development in the central nervous system therapeutic area.
Manji was previously chief, Laboratory of Molecular Pathophysiology & Experimental Therapeutics, NIMH, and director of the NIH Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, the largest program of its kind in the world. He is also a visiting professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University. Manji received his B.S. (Biochemistry) and M.D. from the University of British Columbia. Following residency training, he completed fellowship training at the NIMH and obtained extensive additional training in cellular and molecular biology at the NIDDK, National Institute of Diabetes, Digestibe and Kidney Diseases. The major focus of his research has been the investigation of disease- and treatment-induced changes in gene and protein networks that regulate synaptic and neural plasticity in neuropsychiatric disorders. His work has helped to conceptualize these illnesses as genetically-influenced disorders of synaptic and neural plasticity, and has led to the investigation of novel therapeutics for refractory patients. He has also been actively involved in the development of biomarkers to help refine these multifactoral diseases into mechanism-based subcategories to develop targeted therapeutics.
Manji has received numerous research awards, including the NIMH Director's Career Award for Significant Scientific Achievement, the A. E. Bennett Award for Neuropsychiatric Research, the Ziskind-Somerfeld Award for Neuropsychiatric Research, the NARSAD Mood Disorders Prize, the Mogens Schou Distinguished Research Award, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP)’s Joel Elkes award for distinguished research.
John C. Reed, MD, Ph.D.
Co-Chair
John C. Reed, MD, Ph.D., is President & Chief Executive Officer of Burnham Institute for Medical Research, where he has worked as scientist and leader for over 15 years. Dr. Reed is also Professor and Donald Bren Presidential Chair at Burnham, with adjunct Professor appointments at several universities. Dr. Reed’s scientific accomplishments include authorship of over 725 research publications and more than 50 book chapters. He was recognized as the world’s most highly cited scientist for his research publications during the decade 1995-2005 in the broad field of “cell biology” and also in the field of “general biomedicine” by the Institute for Scientific Information. Dr. Reed is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, and has been awarded over 70 research grants for his work. He is a named inventor for over 80 patents and the founder or co-founder of five biotechnology companies. Dr. Reed has served as an advisor to numerous biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and has also served on the Boards of Directors of several public and private biotechnology companies and life-sciences organizations.
Martin Alda, M.D., FRCPC
Dr. Martin Alda, Professor of Psychiatry, expert in mood disorders and in psychiatric genetics, is exploring the genetic and biological basis of mood disorders and the nature of response to long-term treatment.
Dr. Alda graduated from Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Prior to joining Dalhousie Medical School in 1998, Dr. Alda taught and practiced psychiatry in Czechoslovakia, at the University of Ottawa, and at McGill University. Currently he holds additional appointments at McGill University, The University of Pittsburgh, and at Charles University in Prague. Clinically Dr. Alda works in the Mood Disorders Program at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax.
The focus of Dr. Alda's group is on major psychiatric disorders and their genetics. Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depression are all highly heritable, affect young people, lead to high morbidity and mortality, and can be more or less successfully treated. Three lines of enquiry – mapping genes for these conditions, linking the genetic predisposition with response to treatment, and examining how the genetic risk translates into behavioural and clinical features of the illness are at the core of the research program. To this end they use clinical, molecular-genetic, biochemical, brain-imaging, and neuropsychological methods in studies of patients and their family members.
Dr. Alda's research has been funded by the CIHR since 1997 and also supported by the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation, Genome Quebec, Stanley Foundation, National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders (NARSAD), the Ontario Mental Health Foundation, and Canadian Psychiatric Research Foundation.
Dr. Alda has published over 160 original papers and book chapters, and serves on editorial boards of several journals (Bipolar Disorders, Open Neuroscience Journal, Open Psychiatry Journal, Pharmacopsychiatry, and Psychiatrie). He is a member of various scientific organizations, including the European College of Neuropsycho-pharmacology, American Society for Human Genetics, International Society for Psychiatric Genetics, Canadian College of Neuropsycho-pharmacology, and the International Group for the Study of Lithium Treated Patients (IGSLi) and the ConLiGen consortium.
Dr. Alda held the NCDEU Young Investigator Award from the US-based National Institute of Mental Health, the Intermediate Research Fellowship from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation, and twice the Independent Investigator Award from NARSAD. Prior to his return to Halifax, he was the Canada Research Chair Tier I at McGill University.
Research Interests:
- Mood disorders: phenomenology, treatment, genetics, and neurobiology
- Psychiatric genetics, pharmacogenetics of psychotropic drugs
- Lithium
- Genetics of complex traits and their heterogeneity
Michael Bauer, M.D., Ph.D
Professor Michael Bauer, MD, PhD, is Director and Executive Chair at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Medical Faculty of the Technische Universität Dresden, and physician-in-chief of the psychiatric hospital and outpatient clinics at the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus in Dresden, Germany.
Dr. Bauer received his MD from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, and his PhD from the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry also at Freie Universität Berlin. From 1990-1996 he completed a residency in psychiatry and neurology at Benjamin Franklin University Medical Center in Berlin, Germany. From 1998 to 2002 he was a Visiting Professor of Psychiatry at the Neuropsychiatric Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). From 2002-2006 he was Deputy Head in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Charite-University of Medicine Berlin, in Berlin, Germany, and also Director of the Mood Disorders Research and Clinical Program at the Charité.
Dr. Bauer’s research interests include the neurobiology and treatment of mood disorders with an emphasis on bipolar disorder, and refractory depression and investigation of the thyroid system in mood disorders using neuroendocrine and functional brain imaging techniques.
He currently is the President of the International Group for the Study of Lithium-treated Patients, Chair of the German Society of Bipolar Disorder, Chair of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry Task Force on Treatment Guidelines for Unipolar Depressive Disorders, and editor of the journals “Pharmacopsychiatry” and “Der Nervenarzt”.
He has published more than 160 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 10 edited books and 54 book chapters and has been the recipient of several honors and awards, including the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression Young Investigator Award, the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression Independent Investigator Award 2005, the Judson Braun Research Scholarship at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Research Scholarship.
RH Belmaker, M.D.
Dr. Belmaker received his BA from Harvard College in 1967 and his MD from Duke Medical School in 1971. From 1972-74 he was a Clinical Associate at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD. Since 1974 he has held positions in academic psychiatry in Israel, first at the Jerusalem Mental Health Center 1974-1984 and then at Ben Gurion University of the Negev 1985 to the present.
Dr. Belmaker was a pioneer in biological psychiatry in Israel, and chaired the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP) meeting in Jerusalem in 1982. His research interests include affective disorders, especially mania, ECT, and second messenger mechanisms. In 1993 he submitted a grant request to National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression proposing that TMS could be therapeutically useful in psychiatry, and was awarded the prestigious Distinguished Investigator Award to pursue this hypothesis. He has received the Anna Monika Prize for Research in Depression (1983), the Ziskind-Somerfeld Prize for Senior Research in Psychiatry (1993) and the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Lilly Research Award (1996), and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression Lifetime Achievement Falcone Award for research in affective disorder (2000) and the Research Prize of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (2004).
He is President of the CINP (International College of Neuropsychopharmacology). Husband of over 40 years, father of six children and grandfather of four and counting, Dr. Belmaker is an avid amateur archaeologist in Israel and scuba diver.
Michael Berk
Professor Michael Berk is currently appointed as Chair of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine, Deakin University. He also is a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne and the Mental Health Research Institute, and leads the first episode bipolar program at Orygen Youth Health Research Centre. He is immediate past President of the International Society of Bipolar Disorders, and Chairman of the Australasian Society of Bipolar Disorders. He has published over 350 papers on a range of topics with his research interests focusing on mood and psychotic disorders, particularly bipolar disorder and depression. His greatest contribution to the field is in the discovery and implementation of novel therapies. He has published over 20 self-initiated, non-industry randomised controlled trials, predominantly in bipolar disorder. He is a past committee member of both the Collegium Internationale Psychopharmacologicum and World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry and is a member of a number of international advisory boards. He was the founding editor of The Journal of Depression and Anxiety, is associate editor of both the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry and Early Intervention in Psychiatry, has served as guest editor or is on the editorial board of 12 other journals as well as being a reviewer of 30 journals.
Prof Berk is the recipient of a number of grants, including a NHMRC CCRE and 3 NHMRC project grants, two beyondblue grants and two Stanley Medical Research Institute awards and is a lead investigator on the CRE for Mental Health. He is regularly invited as a speaker at international meetings. In 2008, he was awarded the Australasian Society of Psychiatric Research Eli Lilly Oration, the Pathcare Smart Geelong Research and Learning Expo Health and Lifestyle award and the G Force Recruitment Researcher of the Year award for his work, and in 2009 received a commendation in the Ministers Award for Mental Health. Since relocating to Australia in 2001, he has established a new research unit at Barwon Health, which now has 15 researchers and 6 students engaged in 33 projects, multiple local, national and international collaborations, as well as heading a clinical Professorial Unit at the Geelong Clinic.
Hilary P. Blumberg, M.D.
The focus of Dr. Blumberg’s research is the utilization of brain scanning techniques to understand the neural systems that underlie emotional processing, and to investigate abnormalities in these neural systems in mood disorders. I have a particular interest in the cortico-limbic structures that include the amygdala, hippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex. I am especially interested in how genetic, developmental and environmental factors interact to influence the expression of abnormalities in these structures over the lifespan. I use a variety of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods to study the brain including structural MRI to look at regional brain volumes, functional MRI to look at regional brain activity, and diffusion tensor MRI to look at the integrity of connections between structures.
Joe Calabrese, M.D.
Joseph Calabrese holds the Bipolar Disorders Research Chair and is Professor of Psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University. He is the Director of the Mood Disorders Program at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio.
Dr. Calabrese also co-directs an NIMH-funded ‘Bipolar Disorders Research Centre, whose projects include research conducted by Bob Findling (Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) on the phenomenology and treatment of juvenile bipolar, and research conducted by Martha Sajatovic (Director of Geriatric Psychiatry), whose projects include late life bipolar disorder, health services research, and qualitative methodology.The research center is dedicated to the improvement of clinical outcomes in under-served populations of bipolar disorder, including those with bipolar depression, rapid cycling, children and adolescents, adults currently abusing alcohol and/or drugs, forensic complications of bipolar disorder, those receiving care within community mental health centres, older adults, and members of the Ohio National Guard.
Dr Calabrese has received numerous research grants from the NIMH and Federal agencies and published over 300 peer-reviewed papers. His primary scientific focus is the short- and long-term treatment of bipolar disorder, with special emphasis on bipolar depression and the rapid cycling pattern of presentation. Dr. Calabrese was chosen by psychiatry residents to receive the ‘Best Teacher of the Year Award’ in three different years, received the NARSAD Lifetime Achievement Award for his research in bipolar disorder in 2005, Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 2006, and the Gerald L. Klerman Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.
Karl Deisseroth, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Deisseroth focuses on developing molecular and cellular tools to observe, perturb, and re-engineer brain circuits. His laboratory is based in the James H. Clark Center at Stanford and employs a range of techniques including neural stem cell and tissue engineering methods, electrophysiology, molecular biology, neural activity imaging, animal behavior, and computational neural network modeling. Also a clinician in the psychiatry department, Professor Deisseroth employs novel electromagnetic brain stimulation techniques in human patients for therapeutic purposes.
Deisseroth focuses on developing molecular and cellular tools to observe, perturb, and re-engineer brain circuits. His laboratory is based in the James H. Clark Center at Stanford and employs a range of techniques including neural stem cell and tissue engineering methods, electrophysiology, molecular biology, neural activity imaging, animal behavior, and computational neural network modeling. Also a clinician in the psychiatry department, Professor Deisseroth employs novel electromagnetic brain stimulation techniques in human patients for therapeutic purposes.
Rob Friedman, M.D.
Rob Friedman, M.D. is Board Certified in Child and Adolescent, as well as Adult Psychiatry. After graduating Magna Cum Laude with Distinction in Psychology from Duke University, Dr. Friedman received his medical degree from The New York State Program at the Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 1985. He completed his Residency in General Psychiatry at Long Island Jewish/Hillside Medical Center in Great Neck, New York, followed by the completion of a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the UCSD Medical Center in 1990. Since then, Dr. Friedman has been in private practice in San Diego. He is a founding partner, President and CEO of PsyCare, Inc., a behavioral healthcare provider group with seven offices throughout San Diego. Dr Friedman is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the UCSD Department of Psychiatry, San Diego, providing clinical supervision to training child and adolescent psychiatrists. Dr. Friedman is a member of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists.
Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D.
Dr. Jamison did her undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles where she was a National Science Foundation Research Fellow, University of California Cook Scholar, John F. Kennedy Scholar, United States Public Health Service Pre-doctoral Research Fellow, and UCLA Graduate Woman of the Year. She also studied zoology and neurophysiology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Dr. Jamison, formerly the director of the UCLA Affective Disorders Clinic, was selected at UCLA Woman of Science and has been cited as one of the “Best Doctors in the United States.” She is recipient of the American Suicide Foundation Research Award, the UCLA Distinguished Alumnus Award, the UCLA Award for Creative Excellence, the Siena Medal, the Endowment Award from the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, the Fawcett Humanitarian Award from the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association, the Steven V. Logan Award for Research into Brain Disorders from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the William Styron Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, and the Yale University McGovern Award for excellence in medical communication. She was selected as one of five individuals for the public television series “Great Minds of Medicine,” and chosen by Time magazine as a “Hero of Medicine.” She will be the Litchfield Lecturer at the University of Oxford in 2002.
Dr. Jamison was a member of the first National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research. She is Senior Scientific Consultant to the Dana Foundation and Chair of the Genome Action Coalition, an alliance of more than 140 patient groups, pharmaceutical corporations, and biotechnology companies. She also serves on the National Committee for Basic Sciences at UCLA, and is the executive producer and writer for a series of award-winning public television specials about manic-depressive illness and the arts.
John Kelsoe, M.D.
Dr. Kelsoe graduated from medical school at the University of Alabama, Birmingham in 1981. He completed internship training at Washington University in St. Louis and psychiatry residency at UCSD. He then went to the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland for 4 years and returned to San Diego to join the Department of Psychiatry faculty in 1989.
Dr. Kelsoe’s longstanding research focus has been the genetics of psychiatric illness, bipolar disorder in particular. Over the past 20 years, his work has been focused on using a variety of molecular genetic methods to identify the specific genes that predispose to bipolar disorder. He has pursued this primarily by using positional cloning methods such as linkage and association in families in which the illness is genetically transmitted. He has also employed animal models of bipolar disorder in order to identify possible candidate genes that can then be tested in clinical populations. This approach has led to the recent identification of the gene for G protein receptor kinase 3 (GRK3) as a likely gene for bipolar disorder on chromosome 22. Dr. Kelsoe is currently actively engaged in genome wide association studies of bipolar disorder. He directs the Bipolar Genome Study (BiGS) which is a 13-site consortium focused on identifying genes for bipolar disorder and their relationship to clinical symptoms. He also co-directs the Psychiatric GWAS Consortium for Bipolar Disorder (PGC-BD) which is an international collaborative effort designed to identify genes for bipolar disorder in a sample of over 10,000 patients. These large exciting new technological approaches promise great advances in understanding the causes of bipolar disorder.
Clinical Focus
Dr. Kelsoe’s primary clinical focus is the treatment of refractory mood disorders. He is the Medical Director of the STEP Clinic at the VA Hospital where they specialize in the treatment of chronic and refractory mood disorders. Patients at this clinic receive a thorough diagnostic evaluation and are eligible to participate in longitudinal research studies of the ability of genes to predict course, outcome, and treatment response.
Terence A. Ketter, M.D.
Dr. Terence Ketter obtained his medical degree from the University of Toronto and had internship and residency training in psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco. He had subsequent fellowship training in brain imaging and psychopharmacology research methods at the Biological Psychiatry Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He is currently Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Chief of the Bipolar Disorders Clinic at the Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California. Dr. Ketter's research interests include the use of brain imaging methods such as positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to better understand the neurobiology of mood disorders and to explore the possibility of using these techniques to more effectively target treatments for patients with bipolar disorders. Dr. Ketter also conducts research in the use of novel medications and combinations of medications in the treatment of bipolar disorders, with an emphasis on the use of anticonvulsants.
In constant demand as a speaker, he presents at numerous national and international conferences and advisory boards, and sits on the review panel of several major scientific journals. Within the University, he serves on the Institutional Review Board, the body responsible for reviewing all new research proposals for scientific soundness, ethical conduct, and protection of human subjects.
Inspired by his clinical work with exceptionally creative individuals, Dr. Ketter has developed a strong interest in the relationship of creativity and mood disorders. In addition to his regular medical school and residency teaching duties, he is currently teaching a Sophomore Seminar course on Mood, Temperament, and Creativity. He is a featured panelist on the Alumni Association's Think Again tour.
Marion Leboyer, M.D., Ph.D
Marion Leboyer, M.D., Ph.D. joined the faculty of the University of Paris in 1998 as Professor of Psychiatry. She is head of the university affiliated department of Psychiatry (Hospital Chenevier-Mondor, AP-HP) and runs a Psychiatry Genetics laboratory (INSERM). Dr. Leboyer’s research efforts have contributed to a better identification of relevant phenotype for genetic studies, particularly in the field of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, suicide, autism, OCD and pharmaco-genetic studies. Being principal investigator of national and international studies, she has been able to produce prominent findings such as identification in autism of the first mutations in neuroligins (NLGN-3 and NLGN-4). She is director of .a foundation (FondaMental) recently created by the French Ministry of Research aiming at creating a network of expert centers and promoting research in Psychiatry. Dr. Leboyer has authored or co-authored more than 200 scientific articles and book chapters, as well as 5 books.
Robert C. Malenka, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Robert C. Malenka is the Pritzker Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Pritzker Laboratory at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He has been a world leader in the molecular mechanisms of how neurons communicate with one another and how this communication is modified during learning and by experience. Dr. Malenka received his undergraduate education at Harvard from which he graduated in 1978, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in biology. He did all of his graduate work at the Stanford University School of Medicine from which he received an M.D. and a Ph.D. in neuroscience in 1983. Over the ensuing years he completed residency training in psychiatry at Stanford and 4 years of postdoctoral research work with Roger Nicoll at the University of California, San Francisco (U.C.S.F.). In 1989, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Physiology at U.C.S.F. at which he reached the rank of Full Professor in 1996. In addition to running an active research program at U.C.S.F., he was the Director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction and Associate Director of the Center for Neurobiology and Psychiatry. He returned to the Stanford University School of Medicine in March, 1999 to become the Director of the Pritzker Laboratory in the Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (2004) and an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2005). His public service includes serving on the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse and as a Councilor for the Society for Neuroscience. He is also on the editorial boards of many prominent journals including Neuron, Trends in Neuroscience and the American Journal of Psychiatry. Dr. Malenka’s research findings have been published in over 170 research papers in leading science journals. He has also co-authored a textbook entitled Molecular Neuropharmacology: A Foundation for Clinical Neuroscience (McGraw Hill, 2001).
Gin S. Malhi
Professor Gin S. Malhi is the Executive and Clinical director of the CADE Clinic based at Royal North Shore Hospital. He is Head of the Discipline of Psychiatry at the University of Sydney and is based at the Northern Clinical School. Gin is Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Royal North Shore Hospital and is a senior consultant psychiatrist in the Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service.
Having obtained a degree in Pharmacology and a subsequent medical degree in the UK he completed his general psychiatry training in Cambridge and gained Membership of the United Kingdom Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1996. He then completed his specialist psychiatry training at the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospitals in London and as a Clinical Lecturer began mood disorders research at the Institute of Psychiatry (UK). Since moving to Australia in 1999 he has continued to conduct clinical research in depression and bipolar disorder and has been a Chief Investigator on a National Health Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Program Grant since 2003. During this time he has published more than 170 papers and has attracted research funding from the ARC and Rotary Foundation that he has used to investigate the neurobiology of Bipolar Disorder. In 2006 he was appointed the Editor-in-Chief of an international journal, Acta Neuropsychiatrica and he currently holds the post of Secretary in the Australasian Society of Bipolar Disorders (ASBD). In 2010 he was appointed the Editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry.
David J. Miklowitz, Ph.D.
David J. Miklowitz, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, where he has been a faculty member since 1989.
He completed his undergraduate work at Brandeis University in Psychology (1979), received his M.A. from University of California, Los Angeles in Clinical Psychology (1981),and his PhD from University of California, Los Angeles in Clinical Psychology (1985).
His research focuses on family environmental factors and family psychoeducational treatments for adult-onset and childhood-onset bipolar disorder. Dr. Miklowitz has received numerous awards: the Joseph Gengerelli Dissertation Award from UCLA (1986), Young Investigator Awards from the International Congress on Schizophrenia Research (1987) and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD; 1987), a Research Faculty Award from the University of Colorado (1998), and a Distinguished Investigator Award.
Dr. Miklowitz has published more than 120 research articles and book chapters on bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. His articles have appeared in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the American Journal of Psychiatry, the British Journal of Psychiatry, the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, Biological Psychiatry, the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. His book with Michael Goldstein, Bipolar Disorder: A Family-Focused Treatment Approach (Guilford), won the 1998 Outstanding Research Publication Award from the American Association for Marital and Family Therapy.
Andrew A. Nierenberg, M.D.
Associate Director, Depression Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital
Medical Director, Bipolar Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Nierenberg is a graduate of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Bronx, NewYork. He did his residency in psychiatry at New York University/Bellevue Hospital in New York City. He then went on to become a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale University, studying clinical epidemiology. He continued his trek north to join the faculty at Harvard, first to direct one of the Affective Disorders Inpatient Units and then to direct the Affective Disorders Outpatient Unit at McLean Hospital in Belmont MA. Dr. Nierenberg then joined the Psychiatry Department at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston where he is currently Associate Director of the Depression Clinical and Research Program and Medical Director of the Bipolar Programs, as well as Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Having published over 150 original articles, chapters, reviews, and abstracts, Dr. Nierenberg has been listed among the best doctors in North America for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders since 1994. In 2000, he was awarded the NDMDA Gerald L. Klerman Young Investigator Award and a NARSAD Independent Investigator Award. Dr. Nierenberg is currently involved in both the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD) and the Sequential Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) NIMH contracts, two unprecedented clinical trials that will include thousands of patients with mood disorders. He is also the Principal Invesitigator for a 3-site NIMH /NCCAM study of St.John’s Wort for Minor Depression. This has led to his appointment as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Bernard Osher Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
His primary interests are treatment resistant depression, bipolar depression, juvenile bipolar disorder, and the longitudinal course of affective disorders. Dr. Nierenberg lectures extensively, both nationally and internationally, teaches, maintains an active clinical practice, conducts clinical trials funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and industry, is a member of the NIMH Initial Review Group for Intervention Research and peer reviews studies for multiple psychiatric journals.
Jan Scott, MB, BS, M.D., FRCPsych
Dr. Jan Scott is now Professor of Psychological Medicine at the University of Newcastle. She is a Distinguished Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy (one of 8 individuals worldwide). Her research focuses on combined treatment strategies (using pharmacotherapy and Cognitive Therapy) in the treatment of individuals with bipolar disorders, chronic and/or severe depressions, and treatment resistant schizophrenia. More recently, she has begun to research the development of age appropriate services to meet the needs of adolescents and young adults with early onset bipolar disorders. Additional research focuses on mechanisms of action of psychological treatments, the prediction and management of medication non-adherence and studies of the short- and long-term prognosis of bipolar disorders.
Previous posts include a training scholarship with Professor Aaron T Beck in Philadelphia, USA; The Royal College of Psychiatrists Travelling Fellowship (allowing secondments to University of Wisconsin in Madison and to Johns Hopkin University in Baltimore). Professor Scott has also spent time working with Eugene Paykel in Cambridge, UK and Eduard Vieta and his team in Barcelona, Catalunya.
Mauricio Tohen M.D., DrPH, MBA
Dr. Mauricio Tohen graduated as a doctor of medicine from the National University of Mexico and as a doctor of public health (epidemiology) from Harvard University. His postdoctoral training included a residency in psychiatry at the University of Toronto and a fellowship at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He also obtained an MBA degree from Indiana University Kelly School of Business.
From 1988 to 1997, he was clinical director of the Bipolar and Psychotic Disorder Program at McLean Hospital. From 1997 to 2008 he worked at Lilly Research Laboratories attaining the highest possible scientific level of Distinguished Lilly Scholar. In 2009 he joined the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio as Head of the Division of Mood and Anxiety Disorders and the Aaron and Bobbie Eliott Krus Chair Endowed Professor in Psychiatry
He received a National Service Award in Psychiatric Epidemiology from NIMH and Harvard University. He also received a FIRST award from NIMH, the Pope Award from McLean Hospital, and a NARSAD Young Investigator Award. Dr. Tohen's research, supported by grants from NIMH and the pharmaceutical industry, has focused on the epidemiology, outcome, and treatment of bipolar disorder.
In 2011 Dr. Tohen received the Simon Bolivar Award from the American Psychiatric Association. He has served on the Council on Research and the committee on Health Services Research of the American Psychiatric Association. He has also served in the Epidemiology & Genetics and the Clinical Centers and Special Projects Review committees at NIMH. Dr. Tohen has over 200 publications. He has co-edited four books, Psychiatric Epidemiology (1995, second edition 2003), Mood Disorders Across the Life Span (1996) ). Bipolar Disorder: The Upswing In Research and Treatment (2005) and Bipolar Psychopharmacotherapy (2006). He also edited the book Comorbidity in Affective Disorders (1999).
