Gender	Female
E-mail	yasmin.hurd@mssm.edu
Education and Training	Ph.D., Karolinska Institute
	Staff Fellowship, Neuroscience Center at St. Elizabeth's Hospital
	Postdoctoral Fellowship, Clinical Neuroendocrinology Branch, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Dr. Yasmin Hurd is Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics, and Neuroscience.  She is the Chief of the Center of Excellence in Mood and Motivation in the Brain Institute.  She also serves as Chair of the Minority Health Research Committee (MHRC).

Dr. Hurd's multidisciplinary research investigates the neurobiology underlying addiction disorders and related psychiatric illnesses.  A translational approach is used to examine molecular and neurochemical events in the human brain and comparable animal models in order to ascertain neurobiological correlates of behavior.  A major focus of the research is directed to risk factors of addiction disorders including genetics as well as developmental exposure to drugs of abuse.

Hurd Laboratory

In the News

Dr. Hurd talks about studying addiction in The Daily News feature The Daily Check Up. View the PDF.

Education and Training	Ph.D., Karolinska Institute
	Staff Fellowship, Neuroscience Center at St. Elizabeth's Hospital
	Postdoctoral Fellowship, Clinical Neuroendocrinology Branch, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

The Hurd Laboratory

The research group investigates the neurobiology underlying drug abuse and related psychiatric disorders. The work is focused on the systematic study of the human brain of drug abusers and subjects with psychiatric disorders in relation to opioid neuropeptide, cannabinoid and dopamine neuronal systems. Drug abuse and, e.g., major depression are associated with alterations of mood, cognition, and motivation, thus, an important goal is to identify and map specific genes in the mesocorticolimbic system, which regulate emotional function. Techniques such as in situ hybridization, RT-PCR, DNA microarray, in vitro autoradiography, and general biochemical assays are used for the detailed analyses of genes, and respective protein products, in discrete mesocorticolimbic brain areas. Molecular, biochemical, and in vivo studies of the human brain are assessed in relation to individual genotype in order to identify neurobiological correlates of functional genetic polymorphisms linked to addiction and affective disorders. Epigeneic mechanisms, e.g., DNA methylation, are also evaluated in relation to the regulation of gene expression.

A significant area of investigation is related to assessing the impact of prenatal drug exposure on human fetal brain development that may enhance later risk for substance abuse and psychiatric disturbances. Recent collaborative efforts involve in vivo imaging of the developing mesocorticolimbic system to examine the neurobiological association between behavioral traits (e.g., inhibitory control deficit) that appear to increase risk for substance abuse disorders.

As complement to studies of the human brain, animal models are used to examine in vivo neurotransmitter levels (e.g., dopamine as measured by the microdialysis technique) in discrete mesocorticolimbic brain areas during, e.g., operant drug self-administration behavior. The animal studies are designed to mimic the prenatal and adolescent drug exposure (particularly cannabis) seen in humans, and subsequent adult behaviors are linked to in vivo neurochemical fluctuations as well as molecular and biochemical events in the same subject.

For more information, please visit the Hurd Laboratory website.

Xu J, Xu M, Hurd YL, Pasternak GW, Pan YX. Isolation and characterization of new exon 11-associated N-terminal splice variants of the human mu opioid receptor gene. J Neurochem 2009 Feb; 108(4): 962-972.

Ellgren M, Artmann A, Tkalych O, Gupta A, Hansen HS, Hansen SH, Devi LA, Hurd YL. Dynamic changes of the endogenous cannabinoid and opioid mesocorticolimbic systems during adolescence: THC effects. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol 2008 Nov; 18(11): 826-834.

Mulder J, Aguado T, Keimpema E, Barabas K, Ballester Rosado CJ, Nguyen L, Monory K, Marsicano G, Di Marzo V, Hurd YL, Guillemot F, Mackie K, Lutz B, Guzman M, Lu HC, Galve-Roperh I, Harkany T. Endocannabinoid signaling controls pyramidal cell specification and long-range axon patterning. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2008 Jun 24; 105(25): 8760-8765.

Nikoshkov A, Drakenberg K, Wang X, Horvath MC, Keller E, Hurd YL. Opioid neuropeptide genotypes in relation to heroin abuse: Dopamine tone contributes to reversed mesolimbic proenkephalin expression. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2008 Jan 9; 105(2): 786-91.

Horvath MC, Kovacs GG, Kovari V, Majtenyi K, Hurd YL, Keller E. Heroin abuse is characterized by discrete mesolimbic dopamine and opioid abnormalities and exaggerated nuclear receptor-related 1 transcriptional decline with age. J Neurosci 2007 Dec 5; 27(49): 13371-5.

Fagergren P, Overstreet DH, Goiny M, Hurd YL. Blunted response to cocaine in the Flinders hypercholinergic animal model of depression. Neuroscience 2005; 132(4): 1159-1171.

Berghuis P, Dobszay MB, Wang X, Spano S, Ledda F, Sousa KM, Schulte G, Ernfors P, Mackie K, Paratcha G, Hurd YL, Harkany T. Endocannabinoids regulate interneuron migration and morphogenesis by transactivating the TrkB receptor. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2005 Dec 27; 102(52): 19115-19120.

Nikoshkov A, Hurd Y. p53 splice variants generated by atypical mRNA processing confer complexity of p53 transcripts in the human brain. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2006 Dec 15; 351(2): 383-6.

Hurd YL. Perspectives on current directions in the neurobiology of addiction disorders relevant to genetic risk factors. CNS Spectr 2006 Nov; 11(11): 855-62.

Drakenberg K, Nikoshkov A, Horvath MC, Fagergren P, Gharibyan A, Saarelainen K, Rahman S, Nylander I, Bakalkin G, Rajs J, Keller E, Hurd YL. Mu opioid receptor A118G polymorphism in association with striatal opioid neuropeptide gene expression in heroin abusers. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2006 May 16; 103(20): 7883-7888.