A renowned neuroscientist who has helped to discover and develop new medications to treat serious neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders has joined the Yale Department of Psychiatry faculty.
Husseini K. Manji, MD, FRCPC, will collaborate with Yale faculty and contribute to the department’s educational efforts in translational neuroscience; drug discovery and development, including clinical trials; and healthcare policy. His title is professor adjunct of psychiatry.
Manji is co-chair of the UK Government Mental Health Mission, professor at the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University and visiting professor, Department of Psychiatry, at Duke. Previously he served as Global Head, Science for Minds at Johnson & Johnson, one of the world’s largest healthcare companies, and Global Therapeutic Head for Neuroscience, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.
Before Johnson & Johnson, Manji was Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathophysiology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and director of the NIH Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, the largest program of its kind in the world.
“Dr. Manji has been a long-standing colleague and collaborator of faculty within the department,” said John H. Krystal, MD, Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research and professor of psychiatry, of neuroscience, and of psychology, and chair of the Yale Department of Psychiatry. “We are thrilled to strengthen these relationships and to provide new opportunities for our trainees with this faculty appointment.”
The major focus of Manji’s research is the investigation of disease and treatment-induced changes in synaptic and neural plasticity in neuropsychiatric disorders.
Building on the work at Yale, his research with Dennis Charney, MD, then at the National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program, identified the efficacy of ketamine for treatment-resistant depression. At Janssen, Manji provided visionary leadership that led to the FDA approval of Esketamine, the first mechanistically novel U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved antidepressant in over half a century.
In 2023 the National Academy of Medicine honored Manji, Krystal, and Charney with the Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health, which since 1992 has been presented to individuals, groups, or organizations that have demonstrated outstanding achievement in improving mental health. All three are members of the National Academy of Medicine.
Manji is a member of the National Institutes of Health Novel and Exceptional Technology and Research Advisory Committee, the World Dementia Council, the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Councils, the Board of Mass General-Brigham Incorporated; the Board of Trustees of Harvard University/McLean Hospital, the Board of the Dana Foundation, the Scientific Advisory Board of the Stanley Center at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is recent chair of the National Academy of Medicine Neuroscience, Behavior, Brain Function & Disorders group, co-chair of the Healthy Brains Global Initiative, and has held numerous leadership positions within the NIH, NAM, the FNIH Biomarkers Consortium Executive Committee.
He has received numerous prestigious awards, including the NIMH Director's Career Award for Significant Scientific Achievement, PhRMA Research & Hope Award for Excellence in Biopharmaceutical Research, the American Federation for Aging Research Award of Distinction, the A. E. Bennett Award for Neuropsychiatric Research, the Ziskind-Somerfeld Award for Neuropsychiatric Research, the NARSAD Mood Disorders Prize, the Mogens Schou Distinguished Research Award, the ACNP’s Joel Elkes Award for Distinguished Research, the DBSA Klerman Senior Distinguished Researcher Award, the Briggs Pharmacology Lectureship Award, the Caring Kind Alzheimer’s Disease Leadership Award, and the Global Health & the Arts Award of Recognition.