Research and Training

Multidisciplinary, collaborative research

The Center of Excellence on Mood & Motivation promotes the cross-disciplinary integration of critical ideas through collaborative research projects, workgroups, meetings, seminars, and cross-disciplinary training initiatives. The center consists of four program areas that are strongly linked due to the strong comorbidity of mood and motivation disorders and the common neurobiological features they share.

Our program areas are:

Program in Mood and Emotional Regulation
This program focuses on major depression, bipolar disorder, panic disorder, and stress disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder.
Dennis Charney (Psychiatry)
Stella Dracheva (Psychiatry)
Adriana Feder (Psychiatry)
Martin Goldstein (Neurology)
Marianne Goodman (Neurology)
Wayne Goodman (Neurology)
Javier Gonzalez-Maeso (Neurology)
Ming-Hu Han (Pharmacology)
Erin Hazlett (Psychiatry)
Vahram Haroutunian (Psychiatry)
Liz Howell (Health Evidence and Policy)
Yasmin Hurd (Psychiatry, Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics)
Harold Koenigsberg (Psychiatry)
Sanjay Matthew (Psychiatry)
Eric Nestler (Neuroscience)
Antonia New (Psychiatry)
Yoko Nomura (Psychiatry)
Scott Russo (Neuroscience)
Steve Salton (Neuroscience)
Daniela Schiller (Psychiatry)
Larry Siever (Psychiatry)
Michael Silverman (Emergency Medicine)
Rachel Yehuda (Psychiatry)

Program in Addiction
This program focuses on the study of drugs (licit and illicit), food, and behavioral addictions.
Mark Baxter (Neuroscience)
Bill Byne (Psychiatry)
Desiree Byrd (Pathology)
Bob Blitzer (Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics)
Lakshmi Devi (Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics)
Stella Dracheva (Psychiatry)
Michelle Ehrlich (Neurology)
Jin Fan (Psychiatry)
Marta Filizola (Structural and Chemical Biology)
John Fossella (Psychiatry)
Joanna Fowler (Psychiatry)
Ming-Hu Han (Pharmacology)
Jeff Halperin (Psychiatry)
Tom Hildebrandt (Psychiatry)
Yasmin Hurd (Psychiatry, Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics)
Iliyan Ivanov (Psychiatry)
Susan Morgello (Pathology)
Eric Nestler (Neuroscience)
Jeffery Newcorn (Psychiatry)
Susana Neves (Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics)
Scott Russo (Neuroscience)
David Reich (Anesthesiology)
Stuart Sealfon(Neurology)
Jeffrey Silverstein (Anesthesiology)
Paul Slesinger (Neuroscience)
Gene-Jack Wang (Psychiatry)

Program in Trauma
This program includes the study of environmental and physical trauma that contributes to disease vulnerability as well as insights into resiliency.
Dennis Charney (Psychiatry)
Claude Chemtob (Psychiatry)
Angela Diaz (Pediatrics)
Martin Goldstein (Neurology)
Danielle Laraque (Pediatrics)
Mary McKay (Psychiatry)
Eric Nestler (Neuroscience)
Scott Russo (Neuroscience)
Vansh Sharma (Psychiatry)
Michael Silverman (Emergency Medicine)
Rachel Yehuda (Psychiatry)

Program in Metabolism
This program includes metabolic diseases such as obesity and the impact of neuroendocrine function on the regulation of mood and motivational state.
Christoph Buettner (Medicine)
Kathyrn Loeb (Psychiatry)
Charles Mobbs (Neuroscience)
Gene-Jack Wang (Psychiatry)
Klaude Weiss (Neuroscience)

Cutting-edge research

Our advances in research are significantly accelerated by the use and development of cutting- edge research tools as well as access to unique resources. In addition to excellent Shared Research Facilities, human brain bank resources — including HIV, drug abuse, and suicide — and diverse clinical populations, we employ the following research methods at our center:

Behavioral neuroscience

• Brain imaging (fMRI, PET, DTI)
• Computational neuroscience
• Deep brain stimulation
• Electrophysiology
• Epigenetics
• Genetics
• Genomics
• Molecular and cellular neuroscience
• Neurocognitive assessments
• Proteomics
• Transcriptome assessments
• Transgenic mice and viral-mediated gene transfer

Training

The Mount Sinai Center of Excellence on Mood & Motivation offers the following opportunities for advanced training:

• Postdoctoral NIDA Training in Pharmacology of Drugs of Abuse
• Translation Addiction Research Fellowship
• Mood and Anxiety Disorders Research Fellowship
• Compulsive and Impulsive Disorders Fellowship
• Mood and Personality Disorders Fellowship
• Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship