Three faculty in the Yale Department of Psychiatry have been elected to membership in the Connecticut Academy of Science & Engineering (CASE).
Kristen Brennand, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry; Cindy Crusto, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry; and Joel Gelernter, MD, Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience, will be recognized at CASE’s 47th annual meeting, to be held virtually on May 26, 2022.
Scientists are nominated for election to CASE by members through an annual election process. Members must live or work in Connecticut. They are elected by the current membership for their accomplishments in science, engineering, and/or technology.
CASE was chartered by the Connecticut General Assembly in 1976 to provide expert guidance on science and technology to the people and state of Connecticut, and to promote the application of science and technology to human welfare and economic well-being.
The new 2022 members include:
Kristen Brennand, PhD
Professional Area: Combines expertise in genomics, CRISPR-engineering, neuroscience, and human induced pluripotent stem cells
Citation: Established the first human cell models of brain disease, demonstrating that critical aspects of disease etiology can be recapitulated in the laboratory dish. Her research is helping to decode highly complex genetic insights into medically actionable information, toward improving diagnostics, predicting clinical trajectories, and identifying points of therapeutic intervention.
Brennand is co-director of the Science Fellows Program at Yale School of Medicine.
Cindy Crusto, PhD
Professional Area: A leader in addressing the well-being of vulnerable populations through service system evaluation, education to professionals, and community-engaged research; attends to culture, which is essential to relevant, ethical, and trustworthy practice; oversaw development of guidelines for incorporating culture and diversity, equity, and inclusion into evaluation and quality improvement processes.
Citation: For distinguished contributions to the development of national guidelines for incorporating culture and diversity, equity, and inclusion into all types of evaluation and quality improvement processes.
Crusto is associate dean for gender equity and director of the Office for Women in Medicine and Science at Yale School of Medicine. She is deputy chair for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Yale Department of Psychiatry.
Joel Gelernter, MD
Professional Area: Human molecular and population genetics; other 'omics (transcriptomics, epigenomics); psychiatric disorders (stress, mood, and addiction disorders)
Citation: Perhaps the leading geneticist in the world studying stress, mood, and addictions. His laboratory generated the first genome-wide significant findings in PTSD, the first genome-wide significant findings outside of metabolic enzymes for alcohol use disorder, among other findings. He is particularly known for studying the genetics of diverse populations under-represented in genetics research.
Gelernter is director of the Division of Human Genetics (Psychiatry) at Yale School of Medicine.