Hamid Mostafavi Abdolmaleky M.D.

Hamid Abdolmaleky
Post Doctoral Fellow, Genetics Program, BUSMEducation
2001-2007, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Harvard University, Psychiatry, Epidemiology, Genetics, Epigenetics
1975-1985, Iran National University, Iran University of Medical Sciences, General Medicing, Psychiatry


Research

I have been working as a faculty member in the department of psychiatry at Iran University of Medical Sciences for 15 years. During this time I was involved in the teaching of residents and medical students in a clinical setting and teaching of Medical Doctors and Psychiatrist in Continuing Medical Education Courses in the area of Clinical Psychiatry, Psychiatric Epidemiology, Diagnostic Classification, Psychiatric Genetics and Epigenetics, Psychopharmacology, Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Neuropsychiatry and Neurodevelopment, Co-morbidity in Psychiatric Disorders and PTSD.

My experience as a clinical psychiatrist and research in the field of neuroscience led me to realize that little is known about the etiology of major mental disorders. I recognized that the only way to improve the treatment strategies for these devastating diseases is to use novel insights from basic bench research. Thus, I decided to look for opportunities to conduct cutting edge research in psychiatry. This search resulted in my enrollment in a post-doctoral Psychiatric Genetics Training Program at the Harvard Institute of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Genetics beginning November, 2001. Under the guidance of Dr. Ming Tsuang, an outstanding clinician scientist in Psychiatry at the Harvard University and Dr. Sam Thiagaligam, an expert molecular geneticist at the Boston University, I was working on the mechanisms of genes-environment interactions in brain development and the role of environment insults in the pathogenesis of mental diseases.

This unique collaboration enabled me to combine the expertise of these mentors to take a novel approach to dissect the molecular basis of the psychiatric symptoms that are influenced by the environmental effects based on alterations in genes promoter DNA methylation. Since January 2003, I have been involved in laboratory experiments on the epigenetic modulation of several gene promoter regions using more than 120 post-mortem human brains affected with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. During the last six years, was able to pursue research in psychiatric epigenetics, written three review articles on “methylomics in psychiatry”, and published three articles on my original research findings. As a psychiatrist with skills in basic science research, my ultimate goal is to find novel strategies to treat the affected patients based on their genetic and epigenetic make up and potentially develop new therapeutic modalities for these diseases.


Publications

Abdolmaleky HM, Faraone SV, Glatt SJ and Tsuang MT. Meta-analysis of Association Between the T102C Polymorphism of the 5HT2a Receptor Gene and Schizophrenia. Schizo Res, 2004:1;67(1):53-62.

Abdolmaleky HM, Smith CL, Faraone SV, Shafa R, Stone WS, Glatt SJ, Tsuang MT. Methylomics in psychiatry: Modulation of gene-environment interactions may be through DNA methylation. Am J Med Genet.2004:15;127B(1):51-9

Abdolmaleky HM, Cheng KH, Russo A, Smith CL, Faraone SV, Wilcox M, Shafa R, Glatt SJ, Nguyen G, Ponte JF, Thiagalingam S, Tsuang MT. Hypermethylation of the Reelin (RELN) Promoter in the Brain of Schizophrenic Patients: A Preliminary Report. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2005;
5:134(1):60-6.

Abdolmaleky HM, Thiagalingam S, Wilcox M. Genetics and Epigenetics in Major Mental Disorders: Dilemmas, Achievements, Applications and Future Scope. Am J Pharmacogenomics. 2005;5(3):149-60.

Abdolmaleky HM, Cheng KH, Faraone SV, Wilcox M, Glatt SJ, Gao F, Smith CL, Shafa R, Aleali B, Carnevale J, Pan H, Papageorgis P, Ponte JF, Sivaraman V, Tsuang MT, Thiagalingam S. Hypomethylation of MB-COMT Promoter is a Major Risk Factor for Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder, Hum Mol Genet. 2006

Abdolmaleky HM, Zhou, RJ., Thiagalingam S and Smith CL. Epigenetic and Pharmacoepigenomic Studies of Major Psychoses and Potentials for Therapeutics, Pharmacogenomics. 2008 Dec;9(12):1809-23.

Book Chapters:

Abdolmaleky HM, Smith CL, Zhou, RJ., Thiagalingam S. “Epigenetic Alterations of Dopaminergic System in Major Psychiatric Disorders” in “Pharmacogenomics in Drug Discovery and Development”. Editor: Yan Q, Humana Press, 2008

Abdolmaleky HM, Smith CL, Zhou, RJ. Thiagalingam S “Epigenetic modulation of reelin function in schizophrenia and bipolar disorders” in “Reelin Glycoprotein, biology, structure and roles in health and disease” Editor: Fatemi SH, Springer, 2008