Daniel Weinberger, M.D.

About

Daniel R. Weinberger, M.D., is the Director and CEO of the Lieber Institute for Brain Development (LIBD) and a Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, Neuroscience and Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is regarded worldwide as one of the preeminent scientists in psychiatry research, having been at the forefront of scientific investigation of schizophrenia and related disorders for a generation. 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 was instrumental in focusing the research landscape on the role of abnormal brain development as a risk factor for many psychiatric disorders. His lab identified the first specific genetic mechanism of risk for psychiatric illness, 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 discovery of the origins of the cosmos.

Dr. Weinberger is the recipient of many honors and awards and he is a member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He has been president of major professional organizations.  He has published over 700 papers in high-profile, peer-reviewed journals and has authored or edited 11 books. He has also written extensively on the impact of mental illness in our society, health disparities in brain research and the role of the developing brain during adolescence.

Selected Publications

Hwang T, Park CK, Leung AKL., Gao Y, Hyde TM, Kleinman JE, Rajpurohit A, Tao R, Shin JH†, Weinberger DR. Dynamic regulation of RNA editing in human brain development and disease. Nature Neurosci. 19(8): 1093-9, 2016.

Li M, Jaffe AE, Straub RE, Tao R, Shin JH, Wang Y, Chen Q, Li C, Jia Y, Ohi K, Maher BJ, Brandon NJ, Cross A, Chenoweth JG, Hoeppner DJ, Wei H, Hyde TM, McKay R., Kleinman JE, Weinberger DR. A human-specific AS3MT isoform and BORCS7 are molecular risk factors in the 10q24.32 schizophrenia associated locus. Nature Medicine. 22: 649-56, 2016.

Jaffe AE, Gao Y, Deep-Soboslay A, Tao R, Hyde TM, Weinberger DR, Kleinman JE.: Mapping DNA methylation across development, genotype and schizophrenia in the human frontal cortex. Nature Neurosci. 1: 40-7, 2016.

Jaffe AE, Shin J, Collado-Torres L, Leek JT, Tao R, Li C, Gao Y, Jia Y, Maher BJ, Hyde TM, Kleinman JE, Weinberger DR.: Developmental regulation of human cortex transcription and its clinical relevance at single base resolution. Nature Neurosci. 1: 154-61, 2015.

Birnbaum R., Jaffe, A.E., Hyde, TM, Kleinman, J.E., Weinberger, D.R.: Investigating the prenatal expression patterns of genes associated with neuropsychiatric disorders. Am J Psychiatry, 7: 758-67, 2014.

Birnbaum R, Jaffe AE, Chen Q, Hyde TM, Kleinman JE and Weinberger DR.: Investigation of the prenatal expression patterns of 108 schizophrenia- associated genetic loci. Biological Psychiatry. 171:758-767, 2014.

Jaffe, A., Waton, W., Straub, R., Marenco, S., Weinberger, DR.: Paternal age, de novo mutations and schizophrenia. Molecular Psychiatry 11 June 2013.

Callicott, JH, Feighery, EL, Mattay, VS, White, MG, Chen, Q, Baranger, DAA, Berman, KF, Lu, B, Song, H, Ming, G, Weinberger, DR: DISC1 and SLC12A2 Interaction Affects Human Hippocampal Function and Connectivity, Journal of Clinical Investigation 1 July 2013.

Law, AJ, Wang Y, Sei Y, O’Donnell P, Piantadosi P, Papaleo P; Straub RE, Huang R, Thomas CJ, Vakkalanka R, Besterman, Lipska BK, Hyde TM, Harrison PJ, Kleinman JE, Weinberger DR: NRG1-ErbB4-p110δ signaling in schizophrenia and p110δ inhibition as a potential therapeutic strategy PNAS epub 2012 (1206118109).

Tan HY, Chen AG, Chen Q, Browne LB, Verchinski B, Kolachana B, Zhang F, Apud J, Callicott JH, Mattay VS, Weinberger DR: Epistatic interactions of AKT1 on human medial temporal lobe biology and pharmacogenetic implications. Mol Psychiatry e-pub 7/26/2011.

Nicodemus KK, Law AJ, Radulescu E, Luna A, Kolachana B, Vakkalanka R, Rujescu D, Giegling I, Straub RE, McGee K, Gold B, Dean M, Muglia P, Callicott JH, Tan HY, Weinberger DR: Biological validation of increased schizophrenia risk with NRG1, ERBB4, and AKT1 epistasis via functional neuroimaging in healthy controls. Arch Gen Psychiatry 67:991-1001, 2010.

S J Huffaker, J Chen, KK Nicodemus, F Sambataro, F Yang, V Mattay, BK Lipska, TM Hyde, J Song, D Rujescu, I Giegling, K Mayilyan, MJ Proust, A Soghoyan, G Caforio, JH Callicott, A Bertolino, A Meyer-Lindenberg, J Chang, Y Ji, MF Egan, TE Goldberg, JE Kleinman, B Lu, DR Weinberger. A primate-specific, brain isoform of KCNH2 affects cortical physiology, cognition, neuronal repolarization and risk of schizophrenia. Nature Medicine 15:509-518, 2009. PMID: 19412172

Law AJ, Lipska BK, Weickert CS, Hyde TM, Straub RE, Hashimoto R, Harrison PJ, Kleinman JE, Weinberger DR: Neuregulin 1 transcripts are differentially expressed in schizophrenia and regulated by 5’ SNPs associated with the disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci (USA) 103:6747-6752, 2006. PMID: 16618933

Pezawas L, Meyer-Lindenberg A, Drabant EM, Verchinski BA, Munoz K, Kolachana BS, Egan MF, Mattay VS, Weinberger DR: 5-HTTLPR polymorphism impacts human cingulate-amygdala interactions: A genetic susceptibility mechanism for depression. Nature Neurosci 8:828-834, 2005. PMID: 15880108

Chen J, Lipska BK, Halim N, Ma QD, Matsumoto M, Melhem S, Kolachana BS, Hyde TM, Herman MM, Apud J, Egan MF, Kleinman JE, Weinberger DR: Functional analysis of genetic variation in catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT): Effects on mRNA, protein, and enzyme activity in postmortem human brain. Am J Hum Genet 75:807-821, 2004. PMID: 15457404

Egan MF, Kojima M, Callicott JH, Goldberg TE, Kolachana BS, Bertolino A, Zaitsev E, Gold B, Goldman D, Dean M, Lu B, Weinberger DR: The BDNF val66met polymorphism affects activity-dependent secretion of BDNF and human memory and hippocampal function. Cell 112:257-269, 2003. PMID: 12553913

Hariri AR, Mattay VS, Tessitore A, Kolachana B, Fera F, Goldman D, Egan MF, Weinberger DR: Serotonin transporter genetic variation and the response of the human amygdala. Science 297:400-403, 2002. PMID: 12130784

Saunders RC, Kolachana BS, Bachevalier J, Weinberger DR: Neonatal lesions of the medial temporal lobe disrupt prefrontal cortical regulation of striatal dopamine in the monkey. Nature 393:169-171, 1998. PMID: 9603519

Suddath RL, Christison GW, Torrey EF, Casanova ME, Weinberger DR: Cerebral anatomical abnormalities in monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia. N Engl J Med 322:789-794, 1990. PMID: 2308615

Contact

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