The Seaver Fellowship Program was formed in 2008 and supports research-based fellowships that are awarded to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty in such areas as genetic analysis, development of model systems for autism spectrum disorder, neuroimaging studies, and development and assessment of behavioral and pharmacological interventions. Thanks to the exceptional generosity of the Beatrice and Samuel A. Seaver Foundation and the help of senior faculty across Mount Sinai, each year we continue to welcome new Seaver Postdoctoral Fellows, Graduate Fellows, and Faculty Scholars.
This year, we have been able to identify four new exceptionally talented Fellows, and to provide an additional year of support for one current Fellow. In addition, we are able to further expand autism research at Mount Sinai, now including the laboratories of Eric Nestler, MD, PhD, and Hirofumi Morishita, MD, PhD. Dr. Nestler is the Director of the Friedman Brain Institute, and Chair and Professor of the Department of Neuroscience, and Dr. Morishita is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. We are extraordinarily pleased to announce the new Seaver Fellows for 2016-2018.
This year we will be joined by three Postdoctoral Fellows: Drew Kiraly, MD, PhD, Yuji Kajiwara, PhD, and Magdalena Janecka, PhD. Dr. Kiraly is a Psychiatry Resident on the Physician-Scientist track here at Mount Sinai. Dr. Kiraly works in the laboratory of Eric Nestler, MD, PhD, and he will be studying intestinal microbiota in autism-related behaviors. Dr. Kajiwara will be examining a Slitrk1 frame-shift mutation in mice. Dr. Kajiwara will be working with Dorothy Grice, MD, Chief of the OCD and Related Disorders Program and Professor of Psychiatry, Elodie Drapeau, PhD, Instructor of Psychiatry, and myself on this project. Dr. Janecka will work with Avi Reichenberg, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, and she will study advanced paternal age and autism risk.
We will also have a new Seaver Graduate Fellow: Elisa Nabel. Ms. Nabel works in the laboratory of Dr. Morishita, and her graduate work is focused on attentional circuit maturation in ASD.
We would like to congratulate the new Seaver Fellows for 2016-2018. We are very excited to welcome them to the Seaver Autism Center as part of this program. We look forward to having these new Fellows as part of the team, and we know they will all make valuable contributions.
We would like to thank the Seaver Foundation again for this incredible opportunity to enhance autism research at multiple levels.
Joseph D. Buxbaum, PhD
Director, Seaver Autism Center