Detroix

Stephen  Haggarty, Ph.D.

Stephen J. Haggarty, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, an Assistant in Neuroscience at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Human Genetic Research, the Director of Chemical Neurobiology at the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, and an Associate member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Dr. Haggarty received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. Dr. Haggarty then joined the Broad Institute as a research Fellow in the Chemical Biology Program and became a founding member of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. Dr. Haggarty’s overall research program combines the use of chemistry and genetics to develop novel therapeutics for central nervous system disorders.

The Chemical Genomics Laboratory (CGL) aims to illuminate the molecular mechanisms underlying neuroplasticity in order to develop novel, targeted therapeutics for the treatment of neuropsychiatric and neurological disease. The multidisciplinary research program involves a combination of approaches including synthetic chemistry, neuroscience, and human genetics. Using this chemical-genomic approach, members of our research group invent new methods for finding small-molecule probes that target key components of the neurocircuitry, and then use these probes to selectively perturb neuronal network function at the molecular, cellular and circuit level. As a result of our work, we hope to develop novel, targeted therapeutics for treating neuropsychiatric disorders, including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, fragile X syndrome, and Rett syndrome. The CGL is also engaged actively in collaborations developing probes for neurodegenerative disorders. This research program is conducted in close collaboration with other members of the Center for Human Genetic Research (CHGR) at MGH and the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. We are also affiliated with the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI).