Eric J. Nestler: Navigating a career in molecular psychiatry

Abstract

Eric J. Nestler is the Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, where he also serves as Chief Scientific Officer. He received his BA, PhD, and MD degrees, and psychiatry residency training, from Yale University, where he performed his doctoral research in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Paul Greengard. He served on the Yale faculty from 1987 to 2000 as the Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobiology and founding Director of the Division of Molecular Psychiatry. He moved to Dallas in 2000, where he was the Lou and Ellen McGinley Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center until moving to New York in 2008, where he served as the inaugural Director of The Friedman Brain Institute until 2025, building it into a powerhouse of neuroscience research. Dr. Nestler is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (2025) and the National Academy of Medicine (1998) and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2005). He is a past President of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (2011) and the Society for Neuroscience (2017). He is a founder and SAB chair for PsychoGenics and chairs the SABs for One Mind and the Hope for Depression Research Foundation. The author of more than 800 publications, including the definitive textbooks Charney and Nestler's Neurobiology of Mental Illness (6th edition) and Nestler, Hyman, and Malenka's Molecular Neuropharmacology (4th edition), Dr. Nestler's research has been cited over 177,000 times with an h-index of 210, placing him among the top neuroscientists globally. His research studies the molecular basis of drug addiction and depression, with pioneering work on transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms, including the molecular switch ΔFosB, revealing how drugs and stress fundamentally rewire the brain. His groundbreaking work on the biological basis of resilience has created a paradigm shift in psychiatric treatment, moving the field from symptom management toward prevention, with several pro-resilience mechanisms now in clinical testing for depression. His numerous honors include the Julius Axelrod Prize for Mentorship, the Gold Medal Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry, the Peter Seeburg Integrative Neuroscience Prize, the Patricia S. Goldman-Rakic Prize, the Falcone Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Affective Disorders Research, the Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health, and honorary doctorates from Uppsala University and Concordia University.

Affiliated Institutions

• Allen Institute for Brain Science US
• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai US

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