Husseini Manji
Co Chair
Husseini K. Manji, MD, FRCPC is Visiting Professor, Oxford University and Duke University, and past Global Therapeutic Head for Neuroscience at Janssen Research & Development pharmaceutical companies, and Global Head, Science for Minds, J&J. Before joining J&J, Dr. Manji was Chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathophysiology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Director of the NIH Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, the largest program of its kind in the world. He has been inducted into the National Academy of Medicine (NAM, formerly IOM), is a member of the National Institutes of Health Novel and Exceptional Technology and Research Advisory Committee, the World Dementia Council, the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Councils, the Board of Mass General-Brigham Incorporated; the Board of Trustees of Harvard University/McLean Hospital, Scientific Advisory Board of the Stanley Center at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He is chair of the National Academy of Medicine Neuroscience, Behavior, Brain Function & Disorders group, co-chair of the Healthy Brains Global Initiative, and has held numerous leadership positions within the NIH, NAM, the FNIH Biomarkers Consortium Executive Committee.
The major focus of Dr. Manji’s research is the investigation of disease and treatment-induced changes in synaptic and neural plasticity in neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr. Manji has helped to discover, develop, and launch several new medications for serious neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. These include the first novel antidepressant mechanism in over 30 years, the first medication in Neuroscience granted FDA “Breakthrough designation”, a once every 6-month treatment for schizophrenia, novel mechanism(s) for Alzheimer’s Disease, multiple sclerosis among others. Dr. Manji also has been actively involved in developing biomarkers to help refine these multifactorial diseases, and to develop a holistic approach towards neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.
Dr. Manji has received a number of prestigious awards, including the NIMH Director's Career Award for Significant Scientific Achievement, PhRMA Research & Hope Award for Excellence in Biopharmaceutical Research, the American Federation for Aging Research Award of Distinction, the A. E. Bennett Award for Neuropsychiatric Research, the Ziskind-Somerfeld Award for Neuropsychiatric Research, the NARSAD Mood Disorders Prize, the Mogens Schou Distinguished Research Award, the ACNP’s Joel Elkes Award for Distinguished Research, the DBSA Klerman Senior Distinguished Researcher Award, the Briggs Pharmacology Lectureship Award, the Caring Kind Alzheimer’s Disease Leadership Award, and the Global Health & the Arts Award of Recognition, and has also been recognized as one of 14 inaugural “Health Heroes” by Oprah magazine.
Throughout his career, Dr. Manji also has been committed to medical and neuroscience education and has been a member of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NMBE), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholars Program, and numerous national curriculum committees. He founded and co-directed the NIH Foundation for the Advanced Education in the Sciences Graduate Course in the Neurobiology of Neuropsychiatric Illness and has received several teaching and mentoring awards. He has also served as Editor, and on editorial boards of numerous scientific journals, and has over 350 articles on the neurobiology of severe neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders and development of novel therapeutics. Additionally, publications on holistic approaches to treatment/care, including digital and psychological approaches. Papers have appeared in Science, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Neuron, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation, The Lancet, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, , JAMA Psychiatry, Lancet Psychiatry, and Molecular Psychiatry. (H-index: 122)