Dr. Hilary Blumberg, newly named as the inaugural John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience, focuses her research on understanding the causes that underlie mood disorders, including bipolar disorder and depression, especially their development in adolescence and young adulthood, changes in their expression across the lifespan, and their associated high risk of suicide.
Blumberg employs state-of-the-art brain scanning techniques to study the brain circuitry that underlies mood disorders. She was one of the first researchers to demonstrate differences during mania in adults with bipolar disorder in prefrontal cortex functioning, and in adolescents with bipolar disorder in the amygdala, a part of the brain important in emotional processing.
Blumberg is Director of the Mood Disorders Research Program (MDRP). The program brings together a multi-disciplinary group of scientists to study the genetic factors, and environmental factors such as early life stress, that underlie the development of brain differences in mood disorders. The MDRP is regarded internationally as a leading laboratory in the effort to develop new methods for early detection of mood disorders, more effective interventions, and prevention. The program is also known for training young scientists to be new leaders in the field.
After receiving her B.A. from Harvard University, Blumberg completed her medical degree, psychiatry training, and specialty training in brain scanning research at Cornell University Medical College. Blumberg came to Yale in 1998 as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry; she is currently Professor of Psychiatry, Diagnostic Radiology and in the Child Study Center.
The Yale professor has served as principal investigator on numerous funded awards including multiple awards from the National Institute of Health and Veterans Administration. She has received grant awards from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, International Bipolar Disorder Foundation, National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression, Stanley Medical Research Institute, and from Women’s Health Research at Yale.
Blumberg received the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression Gerald L. Klerman Award for Outstanding Clinical Research and gave an invited address to the United States Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus on “The Brain in Bipolar Disorder.”
John L. Furth ’52 and his wife Hope L. Furth established the John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatry to advance research and scholarship in mood disorders and neurodevelopmental psychiatry.