Two Mount Sinai Researchers Honored for Schizophrenia Research by the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
Schahram Akbarian, MD, PhD, and Kristen Brennand, PhD, Are Awarded Prizes
The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the world’s largest private funder of mental health research grants, honored two Mount Sinai researchers with its 2018 Outstanding Achievement Prizes at its International Awards Dinner on Friday, October 26, in New York City. The evening celebrated the power of neuroscience, psychiatric research, and humanitarian efforts to change the lives of people who are living with mental illness.
Schahram Akbarian, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, and Chief of the Division of Psychiatric Epigenomics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, received the Lieber Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Schizophrenia Research. Dr. Akbarian studies genome organization and genome function, including gene expression in brain cells. His laboratory is exploring epigenetic regulation of gene expression in order to identify epigenetic drug targets and novel treatment avenues for psychosis, depression, and other psychiatric disease. Dr. Akbarian is an authority on gene expression and epigenetic mechanisms in the context of major brain and behavior disorders. He has studied chemical modifications of histones, small proteins that are involved in packaging the DNA of our genome. Epigenetic modifications of histones have an impact on gene expression.
“I feel deeply honored by the Lieber award,” said Dr. Akbarian. “I started my journey towards understanding genome organization and function in the human brain 25 years ago to advance the science and change what it means to live with a mental illness.”
Kristen Brennand, PhD, Associate Professor of Genetics and Genomics, Neuroscience, and Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, received the Maltz Prize for Innovative and Promising Schizophrenia Research. By combining expertise in stem cell biology and neurobiology, she has helped to pioneer a new approach in the study of psychiatric disease.
“This award is recognition of the ongoing work in my laboratory, and a strong indication of the growing appreciation of the value of stem cell-based research in uncovering and understanding the complex interplay of genetic variants underlying risk for psychiatric disease,” said Dr. Brennand.
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