Huda Akil

Huda Akil, Ph.D., is a Research Professor at the University of Michigan, affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry and the Michigan Neuroscience Institute. Her work focuses on the molecular and integrative studies of emotional brain circuits, particularly in the context of mental illnesses like depression, addiction, and bipolar disorder.

• 2023: Awarded the National Medal of Science for groundbreaking discoveries in brain biology related to emotions and mental health.

Research Interests revolve around understanding:

• Neurobiological mechanisms of stress and resilience
• Gene expression in psychiatric disorders (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder)
• Role of transcription factors in human brain function
• Development of resources for brain-related functional gene sets
• Environmental influences on neural gene expression
• Rat genome advancements for disease modeling

Scientific Contributions:

• Led major studies on early life stress and myelin-related gene expression
• Co-developer of the Brain.GMT database for neuroscience research
• Co-author on the mRatBN7.2 reference genome project
• Published extensively in high-impact journals including Nature Neuroscience and PNAS