Hilary P. Blumberg is the John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience, Professor of Psychiatry, Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and Faculty at the Child Study Center at the Yale School of Medicine. She is Director of the Yale Mood Disorders Research Program that brings together scientists from multiple disciplines across the campus to study mood and related disorders. She graduated summa cum laude in neuroscience from Harvard University and completed her medical degree, psychiatry training and specialty training in research in neuroimaging of neuropsychiatric disorders at Cornell University Medical College.

Dr. Blumberg is an international leader in research in bipolar disorder (BD) in children, adolescents, and adults. Among her important pioneering contributions was one of the first demonstrations of brain differences in individuals while experiencing manic symptoms of BD. She and her team subsequently showed brain differences in individuals experiencing depression, and differences present during asymptomatic times that may place them at risk for episodes. She has used innovative, integrative approaches with neuroimaging to show negative influences of genetic variations and early life stress (such as child abuse and neglect), and salutary influences of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, on the structure and function of the brain’s circuitry related to emotional processing.

Dr. Blumberg is perhaps best known for her pioneering work in these areas of research in youths with BD. This has included research evidence of differences in the trajectories of development of the brain circuitry during adolescence that has shaped the view of BD as a disorder of neurodevelopment and of adolescence as an important period. Her more recent areas of study include some of the first multi-modality research on the brain circuitry of suicide risk in adolescents and young adults, as well as changes in the brain in BD with age later in life, and with her Brain Emotion Circuitry-Targeted Self-Monitoring and Regulation Therapy (BE-SMART) psychobehavioral treatment. Dr. Blumberg’s research brings great hope that on the horizon are new methods for early detection, targeted treatments, improved prognosis, and prevention of BD progression and suicide.

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