Jonas O'Gara Hannestad MD PhD

Assistant Professor (Adjunct) of Psychiatry; Chief, Inpatient Division, Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit

Biographical Info

Dr. Hannestad received his medical training at the University of Oviedo, Spain (M.D., 1996) and obtained a Ph.D. in Cell Biology from the University of Messina, Italy (Ph.D., 2000). He did a post-doctoral fellowship in psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA (2000-2002), and psychiatry residency training at Duke (PGY1-3) and Yale (PGY4). He was Chief Resident on the Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit in 2006 and then Clinical Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry from 2007 until 2009. Currently he is the Chief of the Inpatient Division of the CNRU, a 12-bed psychiatric research unit located at CMHC, where he teaches psychiatry residents and medical students. Dr. Hannestad's research focuses on brain-immune interactions, specifically, whether systemic inflammation can affect the onset or progression of neuropsychiatric diseases. He uses a combination of experimental innate immune system activation and PET imaging to try to understand which brain regions/circuits and which cells are involved in the brain's response to systemic inflammatory signals.

Education & Training

M.D.

Universidad de Oviedo (1996)

Ph.D.

University of Messina (2000)

Postdoctoral fellowship

UCLA, Neuropsychiatric Institute (2000 - 2002)

Psychiatry residency

Duke

Psychiatry residency

Yale

Clinical Instructor

Yale, Psychiatry (2007 - 2009)

Honors & Recognition

• Brain imaging Council Young Investigator Award, Second Place
  Society for Nuclear Medicine (2009)
• Scholar Award
  Yale Center for Clinical Investigation (2008)
• Young Investigator Award
  NARSAD (2009)
• Traumatic Brain Injury Concept Award
  Department of Defense (2008)
• Junior Investigator Travel Award
  American Psychiatric Association (2007)