Penn Molecular Psychiatry

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

BNSN

Full Member
10+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2006
Messages
603
Reaction score
0
Hi, all.

I was wondering if any of you could give me insights into Penn Psychiatry. I am an entering MD/PhD student at Penn this fall and have my sights set on a career in molecular psychiatry.

I wanted any input you guys may have on any mentors that have particularly strong programs, reputation, etc. I am not sure if I have not looked thoroughly enough or if I am overlooking something, but I have found relatively few mentors in molecular psychiatry at Penn -- at least, fewer than I thought would be there based on my initial searching (but I am still ecstatic to be going!). The overwhelming majority of research is clinical, and the mentors in the Neuroscience/Neurobiology depts are mostly neurology -- alzheimers, parkinson's, etc.

Second -- and this is just out of curiousity -- how important is it for a PhD to sync up with residency choice? In other words, if I applied to psych with a PhD that was in virology or cancer, would it be a detriment? I understand that a PhD is mostly about the process of science, but I can't help but think the content has an impact.

Thank you so much!

Members don't see this ad.
 
The thing is...Penn being such a powerhouse of research (#2 in NIH dollars for a psychiatry department) means that its as good as your going to get in research options. I think your dilemna reflects how wide open the field is (and in need) of people to apply molecular knowledge to mental disorders. It is your oyster to conquer but you just need to get the basic knowledge and techniques and then collaborate with people in the psych department. So don't sweat it yet.

That being said, Irwin Lucky and Chang Hyu Hahn might be good people to start with. Steve Arnold and Wade Berretini are powerhouses as well with solid backgrounds in molecular psychiatry. I wouldn't a priori try to pick out what you want to study, but rather meet people who do good work, get started doing it, get published etc and then branch out to your own interests. You have a lot of time and are way ahead of the game.

Also, you might want to schedule a meeting with the Chairman of the Department of Psych. Dwight Evans is very interested in developing young research talent and will connect you to many resources even across departments. He would be open to meeting, I'm sure.
 
Last edited:
I would think twice about specializing so quickly in a translational research area as an MD-PhD. There is too much to learn about molecular neuroscience, but also about systems and cognitive neuroscience. If you hone in right away on molecular psychiatry, you will miss out on the opportunity to explore things that are not necessarily directly clinically relevant, but that may teach you how to think about about nervous systems in general (e.g. physical anthropology, neuroethology, linguistics). The other problem with focusing on molecular psychiatry during your PhD is that you will not understand much about the clinical aspects of what you are studying until you do your residency in psychiatry. More importantly, what happens if you write your dissertation in some psychiatry-related subject and then find later on that you hate clinical psychiatry? People change their minds about their choice of specialty all the time.

There will be plenty of time to apply basic neuroscience approaches to the study of psychiatric illnesses once you finish residency and do a fellowship (yes, you will probably have to do some sort of clinical/research fellowship in order to write the K that will get you your first faculty position). By this time, you will have learned how to study the nervous system using molecular approaches and you will have a good sense of the important questions in psychiatry that demand this approach (not all of them do!).
 
Top