Maura Boldrini, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Psychiatry, Director of the Quantitative Brain Biology (Brain QUANT) Institute, and the Human Neurobiology laboratory in the Department of Psychiatry at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. She is Faculty at the Columbia Doctoral Program in Neurobiology & Behavior, Data Science Institute, Stem Cell Initiative, and Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute.

The Brain QUANT Institute that she founded has the mission is to apply cutting edge quantitative neuroscience methods to the human brain, to understand brain function and diseases pathogenesis. Quantitative cutting-edge technologies are applied to interrogate, at a single cell and regional level, the molecular landscape of brain biology and pathology.

In her lab, they focus on understanding genetic and environmental factors that shape brain function in psychiatric disorders, suicidal behavior, aging, dementias and COVID brain. The goal is to identify new treatment targets for drug discovery and inform precision medicine approaches for patient care.

In her practice, Dr. Boldrini specializes in affective disorders and suicidal behavior. She has experience treating emotional and behavioral problems, and cognitive dysfunctions, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, personality disorders, and stress reactions. She says:

"I believe in individualized medicine. I focus on understanding the struggles and goals of every person I see, and I believe in establishing long term relationships with my clients and their families. I like to provide them with comprehensive support throughout the difficult times they are facing."

Dr. Boldrini's treatment strategies are informed by her research efforts, for which she was featured in the NIH Director's Blog describing "New Evidence Suggests Aging Brains Continue to Make New Neurons," in the LA Times for her work on "How COVID changes the brain," and interviewed on Healthy Minds by Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein. Her research has been featured in National Geographic, The New York Times, and highlighted by New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University.

In her laboratory, Dr. Boldrini is studying brain circuits at the cellular and molecular level for understanding how the mind and the brain interact generating symptoms that make people suffer. She has shown that the human brain can make new neurons throughout our lifetime. These new neurons are necessary for learning and memory, copying with stress, healthy aging, and mental health. In the past few years, she has shown that brain inflammation, as observed in patients with COVID, leads to loss of new neurons, and that COVID patients have 10 times fewer new neurons than subjects who did not have COVID.

She has published over 50 scientific articles and edited 7 books on depression and suicide, stress responses, panic disorder, and atypical antipsychotics. Her research on brain biology has been published in Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Cell Stem Cell, Biological Psychiatry, Brain, Molecular Psychiatry, Neuropsychopharmacology and other top journals.

She has been internationally recognized for her work on "New Neurons" in the human brain. Her research has been covered by more than 800 national and international media outlets, including: Science Friday podcast: "Do Our Brains Keep Growing As We Age?", BBC Radio 4 "The World Tonight", BBC World Service Radio, The Scientist, Los Angeles Times, TIME, Reuters, CBS News, U.S. News & World Report, Science Daily, Forbes "Older People Can Still Produce New Brain Cells, Study Shows" and Forbes "How Scientist Are Helping New Neurons Survive In The 'Battle Field' Of Alzheimer's Disease", The Economist, The Guardian, Discover Magazine, and The Scientist.

Dr. Boldrini is leading a very diverse laboratory, and she has been teaching and supervising graduate and undergraduate students, medical students, psychiatry residents and postdocs. She is committed to opening her lab for opportunities to raising scientists of all backgrounds.