Uma R. Chatterjee, M.S., MHPS

First ACNP is going to be tough to top! Thanks to everyone who stopped by to learn about @dpn-journal.bsky.social 🫶🏻🧠💻 #ACNP2026

My favorite picture is celebrating this year's #ACNP2026 with three of my thesis mentors!

Thank you!! Excited for whats to come in 2026, especially in digital health/mental health. @acnporg.bsky.social @dpn-journal.bsky.social

Congrats to all of the new @acnporg.bsky.social Members!!!
#ACNP2026

Thrilled to share that I was promoted to Full Member! 🎉 🙌Grateful for the incredible mentorship, support, and community that made this milestone possible. Thanks to everyone who believed in me, including Tony Grace + @jaredwyoung.bsky.social for their letters, and to @acnporg.bsky.social 🙏 #ACNP2026

If you're attending #ACNP2026 and would like to learn more & discuss this important topic with the authors, come to this study group👇👇 on Tues morning (1/13) at 9 AM!

See you there 😄

Read the article here: www.nature.com/articles/s44...

YouTube video by NPP - Digital Psychiatry and Neuroscience (DPN) The central role of lived experience in mental health research

Our first Deep Dive of 2026 covers a Perspective calling for recognizing & removing barriers faced by researchers with lived experience of mental illness or SUDs who work in our field.

By @umarchatterjee.bsky.social @mayaschumer.bsky.social @deffinger.bsky.social & colleagues

youtu.be/y5fymczeNFc

This is your brain on Ritalin. Got your attention? Stimulant medications like Ritalin (methylphenidate) do, but not in the way you might think. They don't act directly on the brain’s attention systems! Find out what's really happening in @cellpress.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

How basic neuroscience has paved the path to new drugs A growing list of medications—such as zuranolone for postpartum depression, suzetrigine for pain, and the gepants class of migraine medicines—exist because of insights from basic research.

“Basic neuroscience hasn’t produced new drugs.” 💊

Not true - zuranolone (PPD), suzetrigine (pain), gepants (migraine), and more... were born out of a long arc of studies in the lab.

I wrote a Perspective on why this matters. @thetransmitter.bsky.social

www.thetransmitter.org/drug-develop...

CONGRATULATIONS TO DR. BRITT CHAMBERLAIN!!! @britt-chamberlain.bsky.social 🎉🧠🥳🎈💃🏻👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

She did such an incredible job in both the public talk and private thesis defense- I can’t wait to see all the amazing work she does for the field of #OCD in the years to come 🧪

Avoidance manifolds!!! @britt-chamberlain.bsky.social 🧠🧪

🥳SO EXCITED for @britt-chamberlain.bsky.social thesis defense, starting now!!! 🎉🎉🎉

This amazing MD/PhD candidate created an incredibly impressive body of work investigating the role of mOFC in avoidance. Stay tuned for her findings, dropping on @biorxiv-neursci.bsky.social soon #OCD 🧠💗🧪

I’m incredibly honored to be selected for the @acnporg.bsky.social 2026 Near Peer Mentorship Program! 🥹

Thank you ACNP for this incredible opportunity & for believing + investing in my development as an ECR w/ #LivedExperience! Grateful to learn from & grow w/ my mentor + amazing cohort🙏🏾🧠 #ACNP2026

Please join us in congratulating the selected mentors and mentees for the 2026 Near-Peer Mentorship Program! More info: tinyurl.com/2v2phzza

A powerful DPN Perspective from @umarchatterjee.bsky.social, @mayaschumer.bsky.social, @deffinger.bsky.social, @viscidula.bsky.social, Noel Vest, Michael Cahill, Brandon Staglin, & @ericjnestler.bsky.social.

DPN is grateful for the authors' dedication to writing this!

Researchers with lived experience of mental illness/SUDs bring vital insight to our field, yet remain underrepresented and face barriers to participation & leadership

This Perspective calls for removing such barriers & proposes reforms to build inclusive environments

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

This is profoundly sad. We lost a true pioneer in the field of psychiatry

Sincere condolences to his family friends and collaborators

A eulogy for my friend Nolan Williams.

open.substack.com/pub/thefront...

Please share with anyone who cares about NSF support for graduate students and take 30 seconds to sign and leave a comment.

The deadline for the 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Program is about one month away and literally no one can apply. #NSFGRFP

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/

So excited for the first ever @onemindorg.bsky.social Summit on the Future of Mental Health Research! Led by brilliant CSO Dr. Tahilia Rebello to accelerate big ideas to impact 🧠💪🏼🧪

Tech check complete! 🎤

So excited for the @onemindorg.bsky.social Science and Music Festival keynote tomorrow! 🧠💗

Podcast episode description text reads: “On episode 51 of A Chat with Uma, I sit down with Dr. Boris Heifets, MD, PhD—associate professor at Stanford, anesthesiologist, neuroscientist, & one of the most extraordinary scientists & clinicians who is truly revolutionizing mental health! He pushes the boundaries of how we approach consciousness, mental health, & pharmacology—asking questions most people are too afraid to traverse: Do we need to be awake for drugs to heal the brain? What exactly are ketamine, MDMA, & psilocybin doing when they flip a circuit? Could anesthesiology itself hold keys to psychiatry’s future? And yet what makes Boris remarkable isn’t only the science—it’s who he is. Over two hours, he shares not just his cutting-edge research but his story: moving from Moscow to the U.S., struggling with belonging, discovering MDMA & LSD in college, & how those experiences of connection still shape his lab’s vision today. We explore MDMA for OCD & autism, the limits of “magic bullet” thinking, why context & lifestyle matter more than a single intervention, & how anesthesiology lets him practice applied neuroscience in real time. If you want to understand where psychiatry is heading & hear from one of field’s foremost minds, this is an episode you cannot miss.” A bright green circular play button appears in the upper right corner.

Subheading: “Topics Discussed (+ Timestamps):” A list of timestamps and segment titles follows: (00:00:00) Introduction & welcome to Dr. Boris Heifets, MD, PhD! (00:08:44) How Boris & I first met, & why I've admired him since! (00:11:00) Who Boris is beyond titles: curiosity, sci-fi imagination, & breaking boundaries (00:16:00) Childhood across Moscow, Denver, St. Louis, Philly → disconnection & search for belonging (00:17:30) College discoveries: MDMA & LSD → the shock of true connection (00:19:30) MDMA for autism spectrum: Alicia Danforth’s trial & showing connection for the first time (00:22:00) Psychedelics as tools, not cures → lifestyle & comorbidities vs. one-day interventions (00:27:00) How reductionistic models fail to capture what psychedelics actually do (00:31:00) Anesthesiology + psychiatry + neuroscience → how Boris integrates it all A bright green circular play button appears in the upper right corner.

A continued list of timestamps and segment topics: (00:36:40) Applied neuroscience: giving drugs, flipping brain states in real time (00:43:00) Why mental health was always his focus & the bottlenecks of human communication (01:00:00) Translational bridge: MDMA, ketamine, psilocybin across mice & humans (01:12:00) What anesthesiology teaches psychiatry about states, context, & timing (01:25:00) Team science vs. lone-genius myth → collaboration, controversy, courage (01:36:00) What makes psychedelic medicine powerful: bending life trajectories, not instant cures (01:45:00) How to measure outcomes when the drug is just the beginning (01:55:00) Risks, hype, & how to ground the field in reality without losing hope (02:10:00) Closing reflections: radical curiosity, gratitude, & staying human in the science A bright green circular play button appears in the upper right corner.

This was truly one of my favorite A Chat with Uma episodes I’ve ever released!✨ I'm so grateful for how @theborislab.bsky.social shared not only his work, but his own story, with such honesty, generosity, + depth 🙌🏾🙏🏾

📖 Read below for full show notes + timestamps, and listen at the link above! ☝🏾

Split promotional graphic for the podcast "A Chat with Uma." The left side features a smiling man in glasses and a light purple blazer over a pink-and-blue checkered shirt, standing outdoors with blurred greenery behind him. A soft rainbow gradient overlays the image. The right side has a black background and includes the colorful brain-flower podcast logo at the top, followed by the text: "A Chat with Uma" by Uma R. Chatterjee, M.S., MHPS Large headline: "Tripping In Your Sleep:" Subheadline: "Psychedelics, The Placebo Effect, & How Human Connection Heals the Brain with Dr. Boris Heifets." Along the bottom are icons for Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Orange icon (possibly Overcast), Spotify, and RSS.

🤯TRIPPING IN YOUR SLEEP: Psychedelics, The Placebo Effect, & How Human Connection Heals the Brain with Dr. Boris Heifets @theborislab.bsky.social💭 Ep. 51 of A Chat with Uma out now! 🌟

This ep is truly a dream come true (no pun intended)-a MUST listen! 🙌🏾 Tune in📲 creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

Podcast episode description text reads: “On episode 51 of A Chat with Uma, I sit down with Dr. Boris Heifets, MD, PhD—associate professor at Stanford, anesthesiologist, neuroscientist, & one of the most extraordinary scientists & clinicians who is truly revolutionizing mental health! He pushes the boundaries of how we approach consciousness, mental health, & pharmacology—asking questions most people are too afraid to traverse: Do we need to be awake for drugs to heal the brain? What exactly are ketamine, MDMA, & psilocybin doing when they flip a circuit? Could anesthesiology itself hold keys to psychiatry’s future? And yet what makes Boris remarkable isn’t only the science—it’s who he is. Over two hours, he shares not just his cutting-edge research but his story: moving from Moscow to the U.S., struggling with belonging, discovering MDMA & LSD in college, & how those experiences of connection still shape his lab’s vision today. We explore MDMA for OCD & autism, the limits of “magic bullet” thinking, why context & lifestyle matter more than a single intervention, & how anesthesiology lets him practice applied neuroscience in real time. If you want to understand where psychiatry is heading & hear from one of field’s foremost minds, this is an episode you cannot miss.” A bright green circular play button appears in the upper right corner.

Subheading: “Topics Discussed (+ Timestamps):” A list of timestamps and segment titles follows: (00:00:00) Introduction & welcome to Dr. Boris Heifets, MD, PhD! (00:08:44) How Boris & I first met, & why I've admired him since! (00:11:00) Who Boris is beyond titles: curiosity, sci-fi imagination, & breaking boundaries (00:16:00) Childhood across Moscow, Denver, St. Louis, Philly → disconnection & search for belonging (00:17:30) College discoveries: MDMA & LSD → the shock of true connection (00:19:30) MDMA for autism spectrum: Alicia Danforth’s trial & showing connection for the first time (00:22:00) Psychedelics as tools, not cures → lifestyle & comorbidities vs. one-day interventions (00:27:00) How reductionistic models fail to capture what psychedelics actually do (00:31:00) Anesthesiology + psychiatry + neuroscience → how Boris integrates it all A bright green circular play button appears in the upper right corner.

A continued list of timestamps and segment topics: (00:36:40) Applied neuroscience: giving drugs, flipping brain states in real time (00:43:00) Why mental health was always his focus & the bottlenecks of human communication (01:00:00) Translational bridge: MDMA, ketamine, psilocybin across mice & humans (01:12:00) What anesthesiology teaches psychiatry about states, context, & timing (01:25:00) Team science vs. lone-genius myth → collaboration, controversy, courage (01:36:00) What makes psychedelic medicine powerful: bending life trajectories, not instant cures (01:45:00) How to measure outcomes when the drug is just the beginning (01:55:00) Risks, hype, & how to ground the field in reality without losing hope (02:10:00) Closing reflections: radical curiosity, gratitude, & staying human in the science A bright green circular play button appears in the upper right corner.

This was truly one of my favorite A Chat with Uma episodes I’ve ever released!✨ I'm so grateful for how @theborislab.bsky.social shared not only his work, but his own story, with such honesty, generosity, + depth 🙌🏾🙏🏾

📖 Read below for full show notes + timestamps, and listen at the link above! ☝🏾

Split promotional graphic for the podcast "A Chat with Uma." The left side features a smiling man in glasses and a light purple blazer over a pink-and-blue checkered shirt, standing outdoors with blurred greenery behind him. A soft rainbow gradient overlays the image. The right side has a black background and includes the colorful brain-flower podcast logo at the top, followed by the text: "A Chat with Uma" by Uma R. Chatterjee, M.S., MHPS Large headline: "Tripping In Your Sleep:" Subheadline: "Psychedelics, The Placebo Effect, & How Human Connection Heals the Brain with Dr. Boris Heifets." Along the bottom are icons for Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Orange icon (possibly Overcast), Spotify, and RSS.

🤯TRIPPING IN YOUR SLEEP: Psychedelics, The Placebo Effect, & How Human Connection Heals the Brain with Dr. Boris Heifets @theborislab.bsky.social💭 Ep. 51 of A Chat with Uma out now! 🌟

This ep is truly a dream come true (no pun intended)-a MUST listen! 🙌🏾 Tune in📲 creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

2) I’m honored to be selected as a mentee for the @acnporg.bsky.social Near-Peer Mentorship Program! 🎉

I’m deeply grateful to everyone in our field who has supported me as a scientist with lived experience! I wouldn’t be here without your belief in me & you challenging the stigma! 🙏🏾 #ACNP2026

THRILLED to share @acnporg.bsky.social news x2!

1) Our study group “Centering Lived Experience in Psychiatric Neuroscience Research” @ericjnestler.bsky.social @mayaschumer.bsky.social @deffinger.bsky.social @viscidula.bsky.social @noelvest.bsky.social @cahill-lab.bsky.social=ACCEPTED! 🤩 #ACNP2026

So important to recognize the value and recognize the importance of lived experiences! Thank you to all the panelists for your courage and generosity!

FANTASTIC news Uma, you are perfect for leading this Study Group and will be a fantastic follow-up on the Luncheon discussion we had last year on Neurodiversity as a strength!
Thank you for your continued work in this area!
😍

Heck yes!!! That is going to be one incredible panel!!