Director of the National Institute of Mental
Health
Dr. Insel graduated from Boston University where he received a B.A. from
the College of Liberal Arts and an M.D. from the Medical School. He did
his internship at Berkshire Medical Center, Pittsfield, Massachusetts,
and his residency at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute at
the University of California San Francisco. Dr. Insel joined NIMH in 1979,
where he served in various scientific research positions until 1994 when
he went to Emory University, Atlanta, as Professor, Department of Psychiatry,
Emory University School of Medicine, and Director of the Yerkes Regional
Primate Research Center. As director of Yerkes, Dr. Insel built one of
the nation’s leading HIV vaccine research programs. He currently
serves as the founding director of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience,
a science and technology center, funded by the National Science Foundation
(NSF). The Center has developed an interdisciplinary consortium for research
and education at eight Atlanta colleges and universities. Dr. Insel’s
research continues to study the role of oxytocin in social attachment
and behavior, and under an NIMH grant, he is involved in the development
of an autism research center.
Dr. Insel first joined NIMH in 1979 as a clinical associate in the Clinical Neuropharmacology Branch, and went on to hold several administrative and leadership posts. During his 15 years at NIMH before heading to Emory in 1994, Insel conducted research in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), initiating some of the first treatment trials for OCD using serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Five years later, Dr. Insel launched a research program in social neuroscience, focusing on the neurobiology of complex social behaviors in animals. Using molecular, cellular, and pharmacological approaches, Dr. Insel’s laboratory has demonstrated the importance of the neuropeptides, oxytocin and vasopressin, in maternal behavior, pair bond formation, and aggression.
Dr. Insel oversees the NIMH’s $1.3 billion research budget that provides support to investigators at universities throughout the country in the areas of basic science; clinical research, including large-scale trials of new treatments; and studies of the organization and delivery of mental health services. The Institute also administers an in-house research program at the NIH Bethesda. NIMH was authorized in 1946 as one of the first NIH institutes. The Institute’s mission is to reduce the burden of mental illness and behavioral disorders through research on mind, brain, and behavior.