Translational Neuroscience in Psychiatry: Light at the End of the Tunnel

Speakers

Organizers

Siva Digavalli, PhD

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Siva Digavalli is a Senior Research Investigator at the Experimental Biology and Genomics group in Bristol Myers Squibb Co where one of his areas of focus has been to enable seamless translation of EEG-based biomarker use from preclinical to early clinical development. He has a Ph.D in Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics from LSU Medical School, New Orleans and a postdoctoral fellowship from Harvard Medical School.

Ken Jones, PhD

Allergan

Ken is currently a Principal Medical Writer with Allergan in Bridgewater, NJ, where he is preparing regulatory submission documents for novel biological and chemical entities for their neurology portfolio. He has over 20 years of preclinical drug discovery and clinical development experience in the area of CNS disorders. Ken received his PhD in Physiology at Rutgers University and postdoctoral training at the Harvard Medical School Department of Neurobiology where he developed mammalian primary cell culture techniques to map NMDA and AMPA receptors at synaptic and extrasynaptic sites. His subsequent contributions to research include the deorphanization of several G-protein-coupled receptors, including the elucidation of the dimeric nature of GABAB receptors, and the co-discovery of a non-visual photoreceptor that regulates circadian rhythms. Prior to joining Allergan, Ken was a Senior Clinical Scientist within the Department of Psychiatry at Forest Research Institute.

Frank Menniti, PhD

Mnemosyne Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Dr. Menniti is a founder of Mnemosyne Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and as Chief Scientific Officer is the architect of the Mnemosyne’s new therapeutic platform, the Subunit-selective NMDA Receptor Modulators. Prior to founding Mnemosyne, Dr. Menniti was a research scientist in the CNS Discovery group at Pfizer, Inc. in Groton CT (1992-2009). While at Pfizer Inc., Dr. Menniti was a principal in developing the scientific rationale for use of NMDA receptor NR2B antagonists for stroke, neuropathic pain, Parkinson’s disease, and depression and in the clinical development of the prototype NR2B antagonist CP-101,606. Dr. Menniti also was involved in developing the therapeutic utilities of phosphodiesterase inhibitors for neuropsychiatric disease. This includes the identification of PDE10A inhibitors for schizophrenia and Huntington’s disease, with PF-02545920 as the first PDE10A inhibitor to reach Phase II development. Dr. Menniti also led the discovery teams that advanced the first PDE9A inhibitor into Phase II testing for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and the first PDE5A inhibitor into Phase II testing to improve functional recovery after stroke. Dr. Menniti received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1987 and was a Staff Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. James W. Putney at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences from 1988-1992, participating in research elucidating the fundamentals of intracellular calcium signaling.

Jennifer Henry, PhD

The New York Academy of Sciences

Speakers

Siva Digavalli, PhD

Bristol-Myers Squibb

Siva Digavalli is a Senior Research Investigator at the Experimental Biology and Genomics group in Bristol Myers Squibb Co where one of his areas of focus has been to enable seamless translation of EEG-based biomarker use from preclinical to early clinical development. He has a Ph.D in Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics from LSU Medical School, New Orleans and a postdoctoral fellowship from Harvard Medical School.

Dan V. Iosifescu, MD, MScPhD

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Dan Iosifescu is the Director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. His research is focused on novel pharmacological treatment modalities (such as ketamine and other glutamatergic drugs), and device based treatments (such as novel forms of magnetic stimulation) for patients with mood disorders. Dr. Iosifescu also investigates treatments for cognitive deficits in mood disorders and biological markers of treatment outcome, using neuroimaging (MRI, MRS) and neurophysiology (quantitative EEG) techniques to evaluate structural, biochemical, and functional brain abnormalities in mood disorders and their impact on clinical treatment. Dr. Iosifescu has continuously received independent funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 2003, as well as funding from private foundations.

After receiving his medical doctor (M.D.) degree from the Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, Romania, Dr. Iosifescu completed his internship and psychiatry residency at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and McLean Hospital, serving as chief resident in consultation-liaison psychiatry. His research training included a neuroimaging fellowship in the Neuroscience Laboratory at Harvard Medical School, a psychopharmacology fellowship in the MGH Mood and Anxiety Disorders Institute, and a fellowship in the Clinical Investigator Training Program at Harvard and MIT. In parallel Dr. Iosifescu received a Master of Medical Science degree from Harvard University. Until April 2010 Dr. Iosifescu was Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of Translational Neuroscience in the Depression Clinical and Research Program and Site Director of the Bipolar Trials Network, both at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Daniel C. Javitt, MD, PhD

Columbia University and Nathan Kline Institute

Dr. Javitt is Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons where he directs the Division of Experimental Therapeutics and the Columbia Conte Center for Schizophrenia Research. In addition, he serves as Director of Schizophrenia Research at Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research. Dr. Javitt received his BA, magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1979 and his MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1983. He completed his residency in Psychiatry in 1987, and earned a PhD in Neuroscience from Einstein in 1990.    He has published over 250 articles on issues related to normal brain function, cognitive neuroscience, NMDA receptors and schizophrenia. He has received awards for his research from organizations including the American Psychiatric Association, the Society for Biological Psychiatry, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the American College of Psychiatrists, and the Child Welfare League of America. His research is supported by the NIMH, the Stanley Medical Research Institute, and other philanthropic organizations. He is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and a standing member of the Institute of Medicine Neuro Forum.

John H. Krystal, MD

Yale University

Dr. Krystal is the Robert L. McNeil, Jr., Professor of Translational Research and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry of the Yale University School of Medicine and Chief of Psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago, Yale University School of Medicine, and the Yale Psychiatry Residency Training Program. He has published over 400 papers and reviews on the neurobiology and treatment of schizophrenia, alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression. His research program unites psychopharmacology, neuroimaging, and molecular genetics. His work on brain glutamate systems contributed to the identification of novel treatment mechanisms for depression, alcoholism, and schizophrenia that are now in development. He is the Director of the NIAAA Center for the Translational Neuroscience of Alcoholism and the Clinical Neuroscience Division of the VA National Center for PTSD. Dr. Krystal received a number of awards including the Joel Elkes Award of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the Anna-Monika Foundation Prize for Depression Research, and the NIAAA Jack Mendelson Alcoholism Research Award. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He was Chairman of the NIMH Board of Scientific Counselors (2004-2007), served on the NIAAA National Alcohol Advisory Council (2008-2012), and president of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (2012). Since 2006, he edited a leading psychiatry and neuroscience journal, Biological Psychiatry (IF=9.25).

Andrew F. Leuchter, MDPhD

University of California, Los Angeles

Andrew F. Leuchter, MD, is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. He also is Director of the Laboratory of Brain, Behavior, and Pharmacology, and a Senior Research Scientist at the Semel Institute. As a Board certified electroencephalographer, he has unique expertise for integrating neurophysiologic measures into clinical trials, and development of biomarkers to inform diagnostic and treatment decisions. Dr. Leuchter’s research studies indicate that changes in the electrical rhythms of the brain early in antidepressant treatment are a sensitive and specific predictor of remission, and can be used to direct the selection of a medication that is most likely to benefit an individual patient. An internationally recognized expert on the treatment of mood disorders, he is the author of over 100 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. In addition to his research, Dr. Leuchter has for more than 20 years led a research training program that educates the next generation of psychiatric researchers, many of whom now are on faculty at the nation’s top universities. Dr. Leuchter also maintains an active clinical practice, specializing in consultation for and care of patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression. Dr. Leuchter is a graduate of Stanford University and received his medical degree from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Leuchter performed his residency and fellowship training at UCLA before joining the faculty.

Gregory Light, PhD

University of California, San Diego

Gregory Light has a joint appointment at the UCSD School of Medicine and the VA San Diego Healthcare System. At UCSD he serves as an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and co-directs the Schizophrenia Research Program. At the San Diego VA, he serves as the Administrative Director of both Mental Health Research as well as the Mental Illness, Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC). He co-directs the MIRECC Clinical Neuroscience and Genomics Unit and oversees advanced post-doctoral fellowship programs for physicians and clinical psychologists.

His research focuses on the development of objective, laboratory-based biomarkers for improving our understanding and treatment of psychotic illnesses. For the past decade, he has directed the daily activities of the UCSD site in the Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia (COGS). In this capacity, he provides national training, quality assurance, and data management of clinical, cognitive, and biomarker characterizations of schizophrenia patients and their family members. He has approximately 90 publications. Dr. Light’s research is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) and Department of Veteran’s Affairs.

Eva Redei, PhD

Northwestern University

Eva E. Redei, PhD, is the David Lawrence Stein Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a Professor of Physiology in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. She holds an MS in chemical engineering and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry. Subsequently, Dr. Redei joined the Brain Research Institute of UCLA as a postdoctoral fellow and remained at UCLA, Department of Anatomy as research faculty. She joined the Department of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she remained until recruited to Northwestern University.

She has received numerous honors including visiting professorships, invited lectureships and two endowed chairs sequentially. She has over 90 peer-reviewed publications and numerous other invited communications. Redei’s research is funded by NIH and private foundations; she is a member of the Molecular Neurogenetics NIH study section and reviews grants for other NIH study sections, federal and international granting agencies. She has continuously been on editorial boards.

The research in Dr. Redei’s laboratory is focused on the genetic and molecular mechanisms that underlie vulnerabilities to depression and neurodevelopmental disorders. Efforts have been directed toward developing animal models and map the genetic, epigenetic and transcriptomic processes that characterize these models. These explorations led to the search, over the past 10 years, to identify blood-based diagnostic markers for major depression.

Steven J. Siegel, MD, PhD

University of Pennsylvania

Steven Siegel is a Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Translational Neuroscience Program in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also Director of the Clinical Neurosciences Track and Associate Director of Educational Programs for the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT). He received his MD and PhD in Neurobiology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1996 after completing an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at Colgate University in 1986. He later completed residency in Psychiatry and a Fellowship in Neuropsychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the faculty in 2001. He is a practicing Psychiatrist specializing in the treatment of Schizophrenia.

Work in his laboratory investigates the neurobiology of schizophrenia, autism, drug abuse and nicotine dependence using animal models to evaluate EEG and event related brain activity in mice. Additionally, his laboratory has invented and helped develop new methods for the treatment of schizophrenia and Parkinson’s Disease using biodegradable long-term delivery systems. He has published approximately 120 scientific manuscripts, reviews, editorials, book chapters and books addressing the clinical management of schizophrenia, the use of electrophysiological animal models in psychiatric disorders and the use of biodegradable polymers in pharmaceutical delivery systems.

His laboratory has trained more than 100 undergraduate, graduate and post doctoral students in the Neurobiology of Psychiatric illness and Biomedical Engineering. Work in the group has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, The Stanley Medical Research Institute, NARSAD, The IES Brain Research Foundation and several pharmaceutical companies.