Gustavo Turecki has devoted his career to improving our understanding of major depression and suicide. Dr. Turecki is a Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University and an associate member of the Department of Human Genetics and Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery . He received his MD from UNIFESP, Brazil, where he also completed his psychiatry residency, and he obtained his PhD in Neuroscience from McGill University. He is the current Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at McGill, the director of the FRQS/FRQSC-funded Réseau québécois sur le suicide, les troubles de l’humeur et les troubles associés, and the founding director of the McGill Group for Suicide Studies (MGSS), a multidisciplinary group including the Quebec Suicide Brain Bank, with complementary expertise ranging from community intervention strategies to genomics and bioinformatics. As a clinician, Dr. Turecki also directs the Depressive Disorders Program at the Douglas Institute, which is aimed at providing highly specialized services to adults and youth who suffer from refractory and/or major depressive disorder.

Dr. Turecki has been an independent researcher since 2000, focusing his research on molecular mechanisms of depression and suicide. His laboratory has made important contributions to our understanding of biological processes underlying psychopathology, including the first report of brain methylation changes associated with early-life adversity (McGowan et al. Nat Neurosci 2009; 1,896 citations, as of April 2016). He has authored over 330 articles and 30 book chapters. Among these, several publications were in Nature and Nature-family journals, and 42 of his publications appeared in the top five journals in psychiatry (Molecular Psychiatry, American Journal of Psychiatry, Archives of General Psychiatry, and Biological Psychiatry). His work has been cited over 18,500 times. Dr. Turecki’s contributions to the field have been recognized through numerous awards, fellowships and salary awards.