Daniel Weinberger


Daniel R. Weinberger is a professor of psychiatry, neurology and neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University and Director and CEO of the Lieber Institute for Brain Development, which opened in 2011.

Life

He is an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and completed two residencies, one in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and another in neurology at George Washington University.
In 1987 he transitioned from an NIMH research fellow under Richard Wyatt to Chief of the Clinical Brain Disorders Branch. In 1995, Weinberger became a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University. In 2011, Weinberger became the CEO of the Lieber Institute for Brain Development in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2012, Weinberger became a Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Neuroscience at the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, and the Johns Hopkins University.

Work

Weinberger is most known for his work on identifying genetic factors and biochemical mechanisms in mental illness, and promoting research in these areas to further explain causes behind disorders such as schizophrenia. He is an expert in the neurobiological mechanisms of genetic risk for developmental brain disorders, such as the gene that codes for catecho-O-methyltransferase, the enzyme that breaks down the chemical messenger dopamine. Weinberger discovered that a tiny variation in this gene slightly increases risk for schizophrenia, a discovery which Science Magazine ranked as the second most important scientific breakthrough of 2003. In a later paper, he analyzed the activity of the gene neurelgin in a large collection of brain samples from schizophrenic patients and found that the regulation of the gene contributes to schizophrenia.
He has published over 800 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and has written for The Hill and The New York Times.
He maintains columns on mental health at the Huffington Post Medium and The Conversation.

Honors and awards

2019: Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health from the National Academy of Medicine