Congratulations to Daniel Buysse, MD (Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, and Clinical and Translational Science, and UPMC Endowed Chair in Sleep Medicine), who has received the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute Marlin Mickle Outstanding Innovator Award, presented to a Pitt faculty member who has demonstrated a sustained commitment to innovation throughout a distinguished career. Dr. Buysse...

Congratulations to Thomas Karikari, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Endowed Faculty Fellow in Peripheral Biomarkers for Brain Diseases), and Victor Villemagne, MD (Levidow-Pittsburgh Foundation Chair in Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia Disorders and Professor of Psychiatry), who have been named 2024 Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers, based on their publications ranking in the top 1% by citations for...

Congratulations to Kelly Beck, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), who has received the 2024 YourMomCares Brilliance in Research Award. YourMomCares is a kids’ mental health nonprofit, founded by the moms of musicians, actors, and athletes, to fund innovations in kids’ mental health and wellbeing. Dr. Beck’s project focuses on the Schools Unified in Neurodiversity (SUN) Project, designing school classrooms and...

The annual Pittsburgh Schizophrenia Conference, now in its 41st year, presents the latest clinical and research findings to an audience of psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, psychologists, service coordinators, researchers, and mental health policy administrators, as well as to patients and families. K.N. Roy Chengappa, MD (Professor of Psychiatry) serves as course director for the conference and leads UPMC...

In schizophrenia, impaired working memory is associated with transcriptome alterations in layer 3 pyramidal neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Distinct subtypes of layer 3 pyramidal neurons that send axonal projections to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the opposite hemisphere (callosal projection neurons) or the parietal cortex in the same hemisphere (ipsilateral projection neurons) play critical...

The University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry has received recent honors from the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH) The ACAMH, based in London, UK, is a multidisciplinary organization that promotes the advancement of child and adolescent mental health. Boris Birmaher, MD...

Congratulations to Jill Glausier, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), who has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) NeuroBioBank, a national resource for investigators using human post-mortem brain tissue and related biospecimens for their research. Dr. Glausier is the inaugural recipient of the NIH NeuroBioBank Award of Excellence, which was presented at the NIH NeuroBioBank Annual...

In both children and animal models, adverse childhood experiences lead to cognitive and behavioral impairments that have profound influence on behavior and health throughout the lifespan. To improve our understanding of the long-lasting impact of early stress exposure, the specific brain circuits impacted by early stress, and the mechanisms underlying each aspect of the influence of stress exposure, investigators...

Pitt Psychiatry consultation-liaison (C-L) faculty and trainees attended the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry (ACLP) annual meeting and presented 9 symposia/workshops, 5 posters, and 10 oral papers. Awards and Honors Congratulations to the following individuals: Morgan Faeder, MD, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology): conferral of ACLP Fellowship; Priyanka Amin, MD (Assistant Professor of...

We are delighted to announce that Mary Torregrossa, PhD, has received conferral of tenure at the rank of associate professor by the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Torregrossa is a leading scholar in the field of addiction neuroscience. Her research focuses on understanding how motivational, cognitive, and learning and memory systems are altered in substance use disorders. Her goal is to identify interventions that...