Amar Sahay is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a James and Audrey Foster Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) research scholar, a principal faculty member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and an associate member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Bennington College and performed undergraduate research at the Rockefeller University. After a year studying signal transduction in Yosef Yarden’s laboratory at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Sahay earned his doctorate in neuroscience from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the laboratories of David Ginty and Alex Kolodkin. He performed postdoctoral research in Rene Hen’s laboratory at Columbia University before launching his independent research program at MGH in 2011.
Sahay’s laboratory investigates molecular, circuit, and network mechanisms of plasticity and cognition. His laboratory’s discoveries have garnered international recognition and have led to high-impact publications, citations, replication of findings, placement of trainees in academia and industry, and a robust funding track record. The lab’s patents exemplify how we can harness basic science insights to restore cognition in neurodevelopmental disorders, aging and Alzheimer’s disease.
Sahay’s research program is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIMH and NIA), private foundations including the Simons Foundation and BBRF, and philanthropic support. He is the recipient of career development awards from the Society for Neuroscience and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He is a member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and served on the Program Committee for the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting and as the Society for Neuroscience (SfN)-appointed member for the Program Committee of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies.
Sahay is committed to teaching and co-directed the Harvard BBS course in Concepts in Development, Self-Renewal and Repair (2014-2019). He currently teaches the neuroscience section of the Leder Human Biology and Translational Medicine Program to Harvard and MIT graduate students at Harvard Medical School. He serves on the steering committee of Harvard Brain Initiative (HBI), a cross schools neuroscience initiative. Sahay’s mentees have been awarded NARSAD Young Investigator grants (postdoctoral fellows), K99/R00 award, NIH Diversity Supplements, HHMI Gilliam Fellowships (Harvard Neuroscience Program Graduate students) and Harvard’s Hoopes prize (Harvard undergraduate honors thesis).