Prof. Bernard Lerer
Director
Bernard Lerer is Professor of Psychiatry and Director, Hadassah BrainLabs and the Center for Psychedelic Research at Hadassah Medical Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. He founded the Hadassah Biological Psychiatry Laboratory in 1990 and served at its Director until 2020. In 2013 he was chosen to lead Hadassah BrainLabs, National Knowledge Center for Research on Brain Disorders established at Hadassah Medical Center by the Israel Ministry of Science and serves at its Director until the present. In 2022 he founded the Center for Psychedelic Research at Hadassah Medical Center. Prof. Lerer was educated at the University of Cape Town, Hadassah and Herzog Hospitals in Jerusalem and Lafayette Clinic, Wayne State University, Detroit. His main research interests have been the molecular genetic basis of major psychiatric disorders, particularly schizophrenia, psychiatric genetics and pharmacogenetics and the neurochemical mechanisms of action of antidepressants, mood stabilizers and brain stimulation. Currently his principal research focus is on the development of novel therapeutics for psychiatric disorders based on psychedelic drugs. Prof. Lerer served as Director of the National Institute for Psychobiology in Israel from 1994-2002, Vice President of the CINP (1996-2000) and Founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology (1998-2008). He was a founder and past-President of the Israel Society for Biological Psychiatry. He has received the A.E. Bennet Award of the US Society for Biological Psychiatry, the Mentorship Award of the Israel Society for Biological Psychiatry and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the International Society for Affective Disorders and has been a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology since 1996. He has received research support from the National Institutes of Health, USA, the European Union, the Israel Science Foundation and the Israel Ministries of Health, Science and Innovation. Prof. Lerer has published 402 papers in peer reviewed journals (H-Index 82) as well as book chapters and 4 books and has mentored over 100 graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral students and psychiaFry research trainees. He holds patents in the area of psychopharmacology and is a Founder of the Dio-Tree company.
Publications: Bernard Lerer – PubMed