University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Promotes Marianne Seney, PhD, to Associate Professor of Psychiatry

We are delighted to announce that Marianne Seney, PhD, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. 

Dr. Seney earned her PhD in neuroscience and behavior from the University of Massachusetts, then joined the University of Pittsburgh for postdoctoral research training in psychiatry/translational neuroscience and the neurobiology of neurodegenerative disease. Following her postdoctoral training, we welcomed Dr. Seney to the Pitt Psychiatry faculty.

Dr. Seney’s research focuses on the investigation of molecular mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders, with a focus on how sex and circadian rhythms influence risk and clinical phenotypes. She is interested in the molecular bases of altered mood regulation, employing both human postmortem brain analyses and mechanistic studies in mice. Through her research program focusing on sex differences in depression, she has identified multiple differences at the molecular level. Dr. Seney applied these molecular findings to mouse models to study if the alterations lead to disease-relevant behaviors. Key findings from her lab include the discovery that neonatal exposure to testosterone produces long-term effects on stress susceptibility, with females showing greater susceptibility to stress.

A prior recipient of two NARSAD Young Investigator Awards, as well as a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) K01 career development award, Dr. Seney current leads two federally funded R01 grants. She is principal investigator (PI) of an NIMH award investigating sex-specific dendritic spine and microglia pathology in depression, and she is a multiple PI of a National Institute on Drug Abuse R01 looking at molecular rhythm alterations in the human postmortem brain associated with opioid use disorder. Dr. Seney is an associate member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

An excellent teacher, Dr. Seney has worked with undergraduate, graduate, and medical students, as well as psychiatry residents. She has provided lectures for the Pitt School of Medicine, the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh, the Biological and Health Psychology Graduate Program, and the Swanson School of Engineering. Dr. Seney is additionally a highly valued research mentor for postdoctoral scholars, medical students, graduate students, and undergraduates.

“An expert in the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders, Dr. Seney has established an important line of inquiry regarding sex differences in mood disorders, an understudied area of health disparities that has potential for high clinical impact,” said David Lewis, MD (Chair, Department of Psychiatry). “She has also made substantial progress in research on the association between circadian rhythms and risk for psychiatric disorders. She is a highly effective teacher and mentor and a superb member of the academic and scientific communities.”

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Seney!