Yasmin Hurd, PhD

Yasmin Hurd, PhD, is the Ward-Coleman Chair of Translational Neuroscience and the Director of the Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai. Dr. Hurd’s multidisciplinary research investigates the neurobiology underlying addiction disorders and related psychiatric illnesses. A major focus of her research is directed to risk factors of addiction disorders including genetics as well as developmental exposure to drugs of abuse.

A translational approach is used to examine molecular and neurochemical events in the human brain and comparable animal models in order to ascertain neurobiological correlates of behavior. Dr. Hurd is also the former director of Mount Sinai’s combined MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program. Additionally, Hurd sits on the Clinical Neuroendocrinology Branch, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). She is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine, American Society for Neuroscience, New York Academy of Sciences, and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. Hurd’s work has been cited more than 13,000 times. Her work on the neurobiology of addiction, especially with regard to the effects of heroin and the developmental changes caused by cannabis, have been profiled in a variety of popular news sources.