Yasmin Hurd
Yasmin Hurd is the Ward-Coleman Chair of Translational Neuroscience and the Director of the Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai and is a professor of Neuroscience, Psychiatry, Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
Early life and education
In the earlier years of her life, Hurd was particularly interested in how the brain works. To aid in covering her expenses for college, she decided to work in a research lab, which required her to take care of animals. This experience was one that sparked her childhood curiosity and set her on a path to a career in neuroscience research. She completed her PhD at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, where her work with micro-dialysis led to advances in neuropharmacology. She spent time as a Pharmacology Research Associate Fellow with the National Institutes of Health and Staff Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health.Career
Hurd's career began when she returned to her alma mater, Karolinska Institute as a faculty member for 13 years before beginning her career at Mount Sinai. At Mount Sinai, Hurd is currently the Ward-Coleman Chair of Translational Neuroscience and the Director of the Addiction Institute of Mount Sinai within the Behavioural Health System.She is also the former director of the medical school's combined MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program. Additionally, Hurd sits on the Clinical Neuroendocrinology Branch, National Institute of Mental Health.
Hurd is a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, where she studies addiction in people and animal models. Her animal research has revealed that drugs like marijuana can have profound effects on the adolescent brain, including effects that can even extend to the offspring of drug-users.
She is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine, American Society for Neuroscience, New York Academy of Sciences, and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. Hurd's work has been cited more than 13,000 times, and she has an H-Index of 69.
Her work on the neurobiology of addiction, especially with regard to the effects of heroin and the developmental changes caused by cannabis, have been profiled in a variety of popular news sources.
Research
Hurd’s research focuses on the effects of cannabis and heroin on the brain. Her pre-clinical research is complemented with clinical laboratory investigations evaluating the therapeutic potential of medications such as the use of phytocannabinoids in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. One area of concentration has set out to address the gateway drug theory. Her research showed that CBD could be considered as a potentially significant option for treating patients recovering from opioid abuse, a finding that has received public attention.Grants
Ongoing research grants as of 2019:| Title and No. | Role | Description |
| Translating CBD Treatment for Heroin Addiction; R01 DA048613, NIH/NIDA | Co-Principal Investigator | A study of the neurobiological effects of CBD to reduce craving in human opioid users. |
| Transcriptional and epigenetic mechanisms in human heroin abuse; 2P01DA008227, NIH/NIDA | Project Principal Investigator | Characterizing epigenetic networks in mesocorticolimbic structures underlying drug abuse in humans with complementary mechanistic studies in rodents. |
| Cell Specificity of the Human Heroin Epigenome; R01 DA043247, NIH/NIDA | Co-Principal Investigator | Determining the epigenetic landscape of discrete cell populations in the prefrontal cortex of human heroin abusers. |
| Neurodevelopmental effects of cannabis and its epigenetic regulation; R01 DA030359, NIH/NIDA | Principal Investigator | Studying the effects of prenatal and adolescent cannabis exposure on the developing brain and adult brain and behavior. |
| Prevention of the cardiovascular medical consequences of drug overdose; R01DA037317, NIH/NIDA | Co-Investigator | Evaluation of high-risk genetic polymorphisms that are predictive of drug overdose fatality; serum biomarkers that predict tissue/organ injury from drug toxicity; and prospective validation of a previously derived clinical risk tool in the Toxicology Investigators’ Consortium. |
Publications
Partial list ranked by third-party citations:- Maze, Ian; Covington, Herbert E.; Dietz, David M.; LaPlant, Quincey; Renthal, William; Russo, Scott J.; Mechanic, Max; Mouzon, Ezekiell; Neve, Rachael L.; Haggarty, Stephen J.; Ren, Yanhua. "Essential role of the histone methyltransferase G9a in cocaine-induced plasticity". Science. 327 : 213–216. doi:10.1126/science.1179438. ISSN 1095-9203. PMC 2820240 Cited by 511 publications.
- LaPlant, Quincey; Vialou, Vincent; Covington, Herbert E.; Dumitriu, Dani; Feng, Jian; Warren, Brandon L.; Maze, Ian; Dietz, David M.; Watts, Emily L.; Iñiguez, Sergio D.; Koo, Ja Wook. "Dnmt3a regulates emotional behavior and spine plasticity in the nucleus accumbens". Nature Neuroscience. 13 : 1137–1143. doi:10.1038/nn.2619. Cited by 449 publications.
- Caberlotto, Laura; Hurd, Yasmin L.; Murdock, Paul; Wahlin, Jean Philippe; Melotto, Sergio; Corsi, Mauro; Carletti, Renzo. "Neurokinin 1 receptor and relative abundance of the short and long isoforms in the human brain". European Journal of Neuroscience. 17 : 1736–1746. Cited by 393 publications.
- Östlund, Hanna; Keller, Eva; Hurd, Yasmin L.. "Estrogen Receptor Gene Expression in Relation to Neuropsychiatric Disorders". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1007 : 54–63. doi:10.1196/annals.1286.006. ISSN 1749-6632 Cited by 246 publications.
- Österlund, Marie; G.J.M. Kuiper, George; Gustafsson, Jan-Åke; Hurd, Yasmin L. "Differential distribution and regulation of estrogen receptor-α and -β mRNA within the female rat brain1First published on the World Wide Web on 10 December 1997.1". Molecular Brain Research. 54 : 175–180. doi:10.1016/S0169-328X00351-3. ISSN Cited by 390 publications.
- Caberlotto, Laura; Jimenez, Patricia; Overstreet, David H.; Hurd, Yasmin L.; Mathé, Aleksander A.; Fuxe, Kjell. "Alterations in neuropeptide Y levels and Y1 binding sites in the Flinders Sensitive Line rats, a genetic animal model of depression". Neuroscience Letters. 265 : 191–194. doi:10.1016/S0304-394000234-7 Cited by 357 publications.
- Hurd, Yasmin L.; Herkenham, Miles. "Molecular alterations in the neostriatum of human cocaine addicts". Synapse. 13 : 357–369. doi:10.1002/syn.890130408 Cited by 309 publications.
Professional affiliations
Elected Member, National Academy of Medicine; American Society for Neuroscience; New York Academy of Sciences; The College on Problems of Drug Dependence; Vice-Chair, ACNP Minority Task Force; Editorial Board Member, Biological Psychiatry; Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, Scientific Council member; Editorial Board Member, Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research Journal; Editorial Board, National Academies’ Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders, member and the SfN Public Education and Communication Committee.
Professional societies include:
American College Neuropsychopharmacology, Society for Neuroscience, New York Academy of Sciences, College on Problems of Drug Dependence, and the Society for Biological Psychiatry.