Rene Hen

Dr. Hen was born in Strasbourg, France, and received his Ph.D. from University Louis Pasteur under the mentorship of Pierre Chambon. After a postdoctoral stay in Richard Axel's laboratory at Columbia University, Dr. Hen became an assistant professor in Strasbourg. He then returned to Columbia University, where he is presently a professor of pharmacology, psychiatry, and neuroscience and the director of the division of systems neuroscience at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Hen’s laboratory is using animal models to explain the neural substrates that underlie mood and anxiety disorders. He has been studying the mechanism of action of antidepressant medications as well as hippocampal neurogenesis for the past 25 years and he has a strong background in molecular biology, pharmacology, gene targeting technologies, and behavioral studies.