Formally invested on February 6, 2020
Anissa Abi-Dargham, MD
Anissa Abi-Dargham, MD, is an expert in the areas of molecular imaging, pharmacology, schizophrenia and addiction. Dr. Abi-Dargham is the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, a SUNY Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Vice Chair for Research in Psychiatry, and Associate Dean and Associate Vice President for Clinical and Translational Science in the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. Dr. Abi-Dargham also serves as the Founding Director of the Long Island Network for Clinical and Translational Science (LINCATS).
Dr. Abi-Dargham is an internationally recognized neuropsychiatrist who has pioneered the use of combined MRI, SPECT, and PET imaging modalities to unravel the molecular mechanisms and pharmacology of schizophrenia and drug and alcohol addiction. Her research on dopamine dysregulation has utilized novel radiotracers to uncover highly dynamic and region-specific alterations in dopamine release in schizophrenia and identified addiction as a state of hypodopaminergia. This work has dramatically altered our understanding of these disorders and led to ongoing clinical trials of a partial D1 agonist in schizophrenia.
Dr. Abi-Dargham has published more than 200 articles, and her laboratory has been continuously funded by the NIH for more than 20 years. Her scientific accomplishments have been recognized by election to the National Academy of Medicine in 2016 and receipt of the Lieber Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Schizophrenia Research from the Brain and Behavioral Research Foundation. She is Past President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and Past President of the Brain Imaging Council for the Society of Nuclear Medicine.
She directs the Multi- Modal Translational Imaging Lab at Stony Brook and oversees a multidisciplinary team with expertise in multiple neuroimaging modalities used in tandem to address important questions about the brain mechanisms of schizophrenia. Dr. Abi-Dargham has mentored more than 20 postdoctoral fellows in her career.
