Daniel R. Weinberger

Daniel R. Weinberger, M.D., became the Director of the Lieber Institute for Brain Development and Maltz Research Laboratories in the summer of 2011 after leaving the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) where he was head of the Genes, Cognition and Psychosis Program. Dr. Weinberger is regarded worldwide as perhaps the preeminent scientist in schizophrenia research, having been at the forefront of scientific investigation of this illness and related disorders for a generation. He attended college at the Johns Hopkins University, medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, and did residencies in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and in neurology at George Washington University. He is board certified in both psychiatry and neurology.

Dr. Weinberger was instrumental in focusing research on the role of abnormal brain development as a risk factor for schizophrenia. His lab identified the first specific genetic mechanism of risk for schizophrenia, and the first genetic effects that account for variation in specific human cognitive functions and in human temperament. In addition, he and his colleagues developed the first high-fidelity animal model of schizophrenia. In 2003, Science magazine highlighted the genetic research of his lab as the second biggest scientific breakthrough of the year, second to the discovery of the origins of the cosmos.

Dr. Weinberger is a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, Neurology, Neuroscience and The Institute of Genetic Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.