Day 1 - David Braff, MD - Endophenotypes in Schizophrenia: Illuminating the Genotype...

UCSD Department of Psychiatry 50th Anniversary Symposium - Day 1 - Session 1: Schizophrenia Research - Endophenotypes in Schizophrenia: Illuminating the Genotype to Phenotype Gap by David Braff, MD.

David Braff, MD
Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, and
Director of the Schizophrenia Program at the
University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine

Dr. Braff is Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, and Director of the Schizophrenia Program at the Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego School of Medicine. He is also Director of the NIH-funded multi-site Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia (COGS) and the Neuroscience and Genomics Program of the VA Center on Psychosis. David has directed Inpatient Services at UCSF and UCSD and has been the Attending Physician for thousands of patients and has trained many identification of cognitive and information processing deficits in patients and family members 2) understanding the neural circuit/substrate dysfunctions of these deficits 3) using heritable biomarkers as endophenotypes in family/genetic studies and 4) utilizing this information to develop therapies to improve outcome of schizophrenia patients and reduce the devastating disease burden placed on them by this “no fault” clinical brain disorder. He has published over 300 research articles and some of them are interesting. His publications rank in the ISI top 1/2 percent of neuropsychiatric scientists. He’s also published a few medium quality poems. He’s been lucky to have wonderful mentors, colleagues and students.

UCSD Department of Psychiatry Homepage

Fifty years ago, a new medical school at the University of California, San Diego recruited a 35-year old neuroscientist-psychiatrist, Arnold J. Mandell, MD, to establish the country’s newest department of psychiatry. Mandell’s vision was to create a community of scholars, educators, and clinicians who understood that to make advances in the causes, mechanisms, treatment, and prevention of mental illness one needed to begin with the neurobiological bases of these disorders and link such insights to diagnosis and treatment.

Mandell therefore put the department on a new path, a biologically rooted but translationally oriented multidisciplinary department. Our second Chair, Lewis L. Judd, MD, built on this concept and through careful recruiting of talented scientists, educators, and clinicians, developed what came to be regarded as one of the finest departments of psychiatry in the world.

The science of this department expanded from investigations of the traditional mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and dementias to multidisciplinary investigations of the role of brain conditions in important medical disorders such as HIV/AIDS.

From a scientific standpoint, a relatively young department became one of the three best funded research departments in the country, while developing 25 discipline specific and multidisciplinary training programs. The clinical enterprise has also flourished and now includes world class programs in the treatment of eating disorders, early psychosis, and many others.

This 50th year celebration of the science, education, and clinical work of the department is a moment of both happy self-reflection, and consideration of paths forward.

I hope you enjoy the program, and join me in the celebration.

Igor Grant, MD
Mary Gilman Marston Distinguished Professor
3rd Chair, UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry

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David Braff has explained complex topic in light and relaxing way.