Hilary P. Blumberg, MD, John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatry, Professor in the Child Study Center, and Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at Yale, has been named co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Bipolar Foundation.
Blumberg will serve a three-year term to 2019. The other co-chair is Trevor Young, MD, PhD, from the University of Toronto.
The International Bipolar Foundation provides funding for scientific research into the causes and treatment of bipolar disorder. Scientific Advisory Board members review research proposals and advise the Executive Board on which initiatives should receive grant money.
Blumberg focuses her research on understanding the causes that underlie mood disorders, including bipolar disorders and depression. 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.
She is Director of the Mood Disorders Research Program (MDRP) at Yale, an internationally recognized laboratory that develops new methods for early detection of mood disorders.
Blumberg has received numerous grant awards, including from the National Institute of Health and Veterans Administration, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression, Stanley Medical Research Institute, and Women’s Health Research at Yale.
She came to Yale in 1998 as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, and is the inaugural John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience, having been named to that position last year.