Schahram Akbarian, MD, PhD
img_Schahram Akbarian
PROFESSOR | Genetics and Genomic Sciences
PROFESSOR | Neuroscience
PROFESSOR | Psychiatry
Research Topics
Depression, Schizophrenia
Multi-Disciplinary Training Area
Disease Mechanisms and Therapeutics (DMT), Neuroscience [NEU]
Dr. Akbarian’s research interests include epigenetic determinants of normal and diseased human brain development, with implications for the neurobiology of major psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, autism and depression. This work is largely focused on charting DNA and histone modification landscapes, and more generally, genome organization, in specific cell types from brain. These clinical studies are complemented by preclinical research, exploring novel avenues for treatment of psychiatric disease in cell cultures and animal models with specific mutations in proteins regulating chromatin and chromosomal architectures.

Key words: nucleosome, epigenome, histone methylation, neuronal nucleus, prefrontal cortex, mood disorder, schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder
Publications

Selected Publications

Somatic instability of the FGF14-SCA27B GAA•TTC repeat reveals a marked expansion bias in the cerebellum. David Pellerin, Jean Loup Méreaux, Susana Boluda, Matt C. Danzi, Marie Josée Dicaire, Claire Sophie Davoine, David Genis, Guinevere Spurdens, Catherine Ashton, Jillian M. Hammond, Brandon J. Gerhart, Viorica Chelban, Phuong U. Le, Maryam Safisamghabadi, Christopher Yanick, Hamin Lee, Sathiji K. Nageshwaran, Gabriel Matos-Rodrigues, Zane Jaunmuktane, Kevin Petrecca, Schahram Akbarian, André Nussenzweig, Karen Usdin, Mathilde Renaud, Céline Bonnet, Gianina Ravenscroft, Mario A. Saporta, Jill S. Napierala, Henry Houlden, Ira W. Deveson, Marek Napierala, Alexis Brice, Laura Molina Porcel, Danielle Seilhean, Stephan Zuchner, Alexandra Durr, Bernard Brais. Brain

Multiomic single-cell profiling identifies critical regulators of postnatal brain. Tereza Clarence, Jaroslav Bendl, Xuan Cao, Xinyi Wang, Shiwei Zheng, Gabriel E. Hoffman, Alexey Kozlenkov, Aram Hong, Marina Iskhakova, Manoj K. Jaiswal, Sarah Murphy, Alexander Yu, Vahram Haroutunian, Stella Dracheva, Schahram Akbarian, John F. Fullard, Guo Cheng Yuan, Donghoon Lee, Panos Roussos. Nature Genetics

Neuron-Specific Glycine Metabolism Links Transfer RNA Epitranscriptomic Regulation to Complex Behaviors. Jennifer Blaze, Viviana Dolores Evans, Jessica Abigail Feria Pliego, Petr Unichenko, Behnam Javidfar, Soeren Heissel, Hanan Alwaseem, Zachary Pennington, Denise Cai, Henrik Molina, Christian Henneberger, Schahram Akbarian. Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science

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Physicians and scientists on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai often interact with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology companies, and other outside entities to improve patient care, develop new therapies and achieve scientific breakthroughs. In order to promote an ethical and transparent environment for conducting research, providing clinical care and teaching, Mount Sinai requires that salaried faculty inform the School of their outside financial relationships.

Dr. Akbarian has not yet completed reporting of Industry relationships.

Mount Sinai's faculty policies relating to faculty collaboration with industry are posted on our website. Patients may wish to ask their physician about the activities they perform for companies.