| Daniel R. Weinberger, MD |
|
Director, Genes, Cognition and Psychosis Program, Intramural Research Program National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health Dr. Weinberger is Director of the Genes, Cognition, and Psychosis Program of the Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He attended college at the Johns Hopkins University, medical school at the University of Pennsylvania and did residencies in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and in Neurology at George Washington University. He is board certified in both Psychiatry and Neurology.
Dr. Weinberger’s research at the NIMH has focused on brain mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders, especially schizophrenia. His work has defined dysfunctional neural systems in the brain that appear to underlie many of the clinical symptoms of the illness. He was instrumental in focusing research on the role of abnormal brain development as a risk factor for schizophrenia. His lab has identified the first specific genetic mechanism of risk for schizophrenia, and the first genetic effects that account for variation in specific human cognitive functions and in human temperament. In addition, he and his colleagues developed the first high-fidelity animal model of schizophrenia. In 2003, Science magazine highlighted the genetic research of his lab as the second biggest scientific breakthrough of the year, second to the origins of the cosmos.
He is the recipient of many honors and awards, including the NIH Directors Award, The William K. Warren Medical Research Institute Award, the Adolf Meyer Prize of the APA, the Research Prize ofthe World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry, the Gold Medal Award of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, the Foundation’s Fund Prize from the American Psychiatric Association, and the Lieber Prize of the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD). He is past president of both the Society of Biological Psychiatry and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He sits on the editorial boards of 16 scientific journals and published over 400 scientific articles and has authored or edited six books. |