Skip to Main Content

Matthew Girgenti, PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Contact Information

Matthew Girgenti, PhD

Biography

Dr. Matt Girgenti is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. He is a neuroscientist and molecular biologist and a member of the Division of Molecular Psychiatry and the Wu Tsai Institute at Yale. He is also a VA-NCPTSD Research Scientist at the West Haven VA Medical Center. He received his doctoral degree at the University of Connecticut in molecular neuroscience. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship in Molecular Psychiatry at Yale followed by a VA Career Development fellowship in postmortem brain genomics. His early research focused on the epigenetic basis of schizophrenia using neural stem cells to demonstrate a role for the SCZ-risk gene ZNF804a as a gene transcription regulator. During his postdoc, his research focused on the cell-type-specific effects of rapid antidepressants, including ketamine and scopolamine using pharmacogenomic approaches. During his VA Career Development fellowship he worked on human postmortem studies focused on the functional genomics of neuropsychiatric disorders, specifically PTSD and major depression. He published the first genome-wide transcriptomic study of the human PTSD brain (Girgenti MJ, et al. 2021). His research now focuses on genomic studies of the postmortem human brain, combining molecular biology and bioinformatics to understand the neurobiology of major brain and behavioral disorders, including depression, PTSD, and alcohol use disorder.

Education & Training

  • PhD
    University of Connecticut (2015)
  • BS
    Fairfield University, Molecular Biology (2002)

Honors & Recognition

AwardAwarding OrganizationDate
Rafaelsen Young Investigators AwardInternational College of Neuropsychopharmacology2023
Lawrence Young Investigator FellowYale School of Medicine2022
Early Career Reviewer- NIH Study Section Molecular NeurogeneticsNIH2022
Young Investigator AwardAmerican Foundation for Suicide Prevention2021
ACNP Travel AwardAmerican College of Neuropsychopharmacology2021
NARSAD Young InvestigatorBrain and Behavior Research Foundation2020
VISN1 Career Development AwardUS Department of Veterans Affairs2019
NIDA/Yale Neuroproteomics Pilot AwardNIDA/Yale Neuroproteomics Core2017

Professional Service

OrganizationRoleDate
Faculty Advisory Council, Yale School of MedicineMember2022 - Present
VA National PTSD Brain Bank, Intramural ResearchDirector2022 - Present
National PTSD Brain Bank, US Department of Veterans AffairsBoard Member2019 - Present

Departments & Organizations