René Hen
· Professor of Pharmacology (in Psychiatry), Professor of NeuroscienceColumbia University · Molecular Pharmacology
Active 1979–2025
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About
René Hen, PhD, is a Professor of Pharmacology (in Psychiatry) and Neuroscience at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He serves as the Director of the Division of Systems Neuroscience. His research interests include models of psychiatric disorders and stem cell biology. Dr. Hen has contributed to understanding hippocampal neurogenesis, its role in stress resilience, memory modulation, and anxiety. His work explores how adult-born hippocampal neurons influence entorhinal inputs, modulate hippocampal memory traces, and affect behavior related to anxiety and depression. His research has advanced knowledge of neurogenesis and its implications for psychiatric conditions, emphasizing the importance of hippocampal neurogenesis in behavioral effects of antidepressants and in the mechanisms underlying pattern separation and stress resilience.
Research topics
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Medicine
- Computer Science
- Biology
- Internal medicine
- Algorithm
- Psychiatry
Selected publications
Molecular Psychiatry · 2022 · 369 citations
A Distributed Neural Code in the Dentate Gyrus and in CA1
Neuron · 2020 · 188 citations
Hippocampus · 2023-07-08 · 15 citations
articleOpen accessSenior authorCorrespondingWe investigated the mechanisms underlying the effects of the antidepressant fluoxetine on behavior and adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN). After confirming our earlier report that the signaling molecule β-arrestin-2 (β-Arr2) is required for the antidepressant-like effects of fluoxetine, we found that the effects of fluoxetine on proliferation of neural progenitors and survival of adult-born granule cells are absent in the β-Arr2 knockout (KO) mice. To our surprise, fluoxetine induced a dramati…
Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science · 2024-11-20 · 7 citations
articleOpen accessSenior authorCorrespondingImpairments in behavioral pattern separation (BPS)—the ability to distinguish between similar contexts or experiences—contribute to memory interference and overgeneralization seen in many neuropsychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, dementia, and age-related cognitive decline. Although BPS relies on the dentate gyrus and is sensitive to changes in adult hippocampal neurogenesis, its significance as a pharmacological target has not been tested. In thi…
Advances in neurobiology · 2024-01-01 · 6 citations
reviewSenior author
Recent grants
NIH · $4.1M · 2018
NIH · $23.4M · 2005
NIH · $30.0M · 2011
Frequent coauthors
- 164 shared
Denis J. David
Centre de recherche en Epidémiologie et Santé des Populations
- 136 shared
Alain M. Gardier
Centre de recherche en Epidémiologie et Santé des Populations
- 129 shared
Christine A. Denny
Research Foundation For Mental Hygiene
- 116 shared
Indira Mendez‐David
Centre de recherche en Epidémiologie et Santé des Populations
- 93 shared
Clay Lacefield
New York State Psychiatric Institute
- 88 shared
Mazen A. Kheirbek
University of California, San Francisco
- 81 shared
J. John Mann
New York State Psychiatric Institute
- 74 shared
Pierre Chambon
Institut de génétique et de biologie moléculaire et cellulaire
Labs
Hen LabPI
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