Profile photo René Kahn

René Kahn

Full Professor

Biography

Dr René Kahn is Professor and until 2017, was Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Head of the Division of Neurosciences at the University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands. In 1995 he received a Fulbright Scholarship for study at Yale and subsequently did a Fellowship in Biological Psychiatry at the Montefiore Hospital and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He then moved to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine where he conducted schizophrenia research and became Unit Chief of one of the research units.

Dr Kahn has received many grants for his research into the origins and treatment of schizophrenia. His current research interests include neuroimaging in schizophrenia and the genetic dissection of complex traits in specific psychiatric disorders. He has published over 500 research papers and book chapters. He is on the editorial boards of Schizophrenia research, Schizophrenia Bulletin, Early Interventions in Psychiatry and European Neuropsychopharmacology. He was both Treasurer and Vice-President of the European College for Neuropsychopharmacology and currently is President-Elect of the Schizophrenia International Research Society. He sat on the Neuroscience andd Mental Health Board of the Medical Research Council of the UK and was on the scientific advisory group for CNS of the European Medicines Agency. He leads a large EU-funded study, OPTiMiSE, on developing a treatment algorithm in first episode schizophrenia. He is honorary lifetime professor at Jilin University in Changchun, P.R. China and a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

As of January 2017, he is appointed head of the Department of Psychiatry at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. His main tasks at UMC Utrecht are now: coaching his PhD students and coordinating research projects.

Most recent key publications

1: Kahn RS, Fleischhacker WW, Boter H, Davidson M, Vergouwe Y, Keet IP, Gheorghe MD, Rybakowski JK, Galderisi S, Libiger J, Hummer M, Dollfus S, López-Ibor JJ, Hranov LG, Gaebel W, Peuskens J, Lindefors N, Riecher-Rössler A, Grobbee DE, EUFEST study group. E
2: van der Schot AC, Vonk R, Brans RG, van Haren NE, Koolschijn PC, Nuboer V, Schnack HG, van Baal GC, Boomsma DI, Nolen WA, Hulshoff Pol HE, Kahn RS. Influence of genes and environment on brain volumes in twin pairs concordant and discordant for bipolar disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009 Feb,66(2):142-51
3: van der Schot AC, Vonk R, Brouwer RM, van Baal GC, Brans RG, van Haren NE, Schnack HG, Boomsma DI, Nolen WA, Pol HE, Kahn RS. Genetic and environmental influences on focal brain density in bipolar disorder. Brain. 2010 Sep 12
4: van Haren NE, Schnack HG, Cahn W, van den Heuvel MP, Lepage C, Collins L, Evans AC, Hulshoff Pol HE, Kahn RS Changes in cortical thickness during the course of illness in schizophrenia Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2011 Sep,68(9):871-80
5: van Haren NE, Rijsdijk F, Schnack HG, Picchioni MM, Toulopoulou T, Weisbrod M, Sauer ,H, van Erp TG, Cannon TD, Huttunen MO, Boomsma DI, Hulshoff Pol HE, Murray RM, Kahn RS. The genetic and environmental determinants of the association between brain abnormalities and schizophrenia: the schizophrenia twins and relatives consortium. Biol Psychiatry. 2012 May 15,71(10):915-21

Recent publications

Body fluid biomarkers and psychosis risk in The Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Schizophrenia Program Diana O Perkins, Clark D Jeffries, Scott R Clark, Rachel Upthegrove, Cassandra M J Wannan, Naomi R Wray, Qingqin S Li, Kim Q Do, Elaine Walker, G Paul Amminger, Alan Anticevic, David Cotter, Lauren M Ellman, David Mongan, Christina Phassouliotis, Jenna Barbee, Sharin Roth, Tashrif Billah, Cheryl Corcoran, Monica E Calkins, Felecia Cerrato, Ines Khadimallah, Paul Klauser, Inge Winter-van Rossum, Angela R Nunez, Rachel S Bleggi, Alicia R Martin, Sylvain Bouix, Ofer Pasternak, Jai L Shah, Catherine Toben, Daniel H Wolf, Rene S Kahn, John M Kane, Patrick D McGorry, Carrie E Bearden, Barnaby Nelson, Martha E Shenton, Scott W Woods,
Schizophrenia, 2025, vol. 11
Data analysis strategies for the Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Schizophrenia Program Nora Penzel, Pablo Polosecki, Jean Addington, Celso Arango, Ameneh Asgari-Targhi, Tashrif Billah, Sylvain Bouix, Monica E Calkins, Dylan E Campbell, Tyrone D Cannon, Eduardo Castro, Kang Ik K Cho, Michael J Coleman, Cheryl M Corcoran, Dominic Dwyer, Sophia Frangou, Paolo Fusar-Poli, Robert J Glynn, Anastasia Haidar, Michael P Harms, Grace R Jacobs, Joseph Kambeitz, Tina Kapur, Sinead M Kelly, Nikolaos Koutsouleris, K R Abhinandan, Saryet Kucukemiroglu, Jun Soo Kwon, Kathryn E Lewandowski, Qingqin S Li, Valentina Mantua, Daniel H Mathalon, Vijay A Mittal, Spero Nicholas, Gahan J Pandina, Diana O Perkins, Andrew Potter, Abraham Reichenberg, Jenna Reinen, Michael S Sand, Johanna Seitz-Holland, Jai L Shah, Vairavan Srinivasan, Agrima Srivastava, William S Stone, John Torous, Mark G Vangel, Jijun Wang, Phillip Wolff, René S Kahn,
Schizophrenia, 2025, vol. 11
Bridging Science and Hope Ameneh Asgari-Targhi, Beier Yao, Lisa Brown, Suzanne Garcia, Arundati Nagendra, Kota Chin, Tashrif Billah, Nora Penzel, Omar John, Nicholas Prunier, Simone Veale, Elana Kotler, Grace R Jacobs, Ming Zhan, Michael J Coleman, Sylvain Bouix, Ofer Pasternak, Guillermo Cecci, Justin T Baker, Daniel H Mathalon, Sinead M Kelly, Cheryl M Corcoran, Abraham Reichenberg, Inge Winter-van Rossum, Marek Kubicki, Jessica Spark, Dominic Dwyer, Celso Arango, Paolo Fusar-Poli, Monica Calkins, Jai L Shah, Vijay Mittal, Andrew Thompson, Patrick D McGorry, René S Kahn, John M Kane, Carrie E Bearden, Scott W Woods, Barnaby Nelson, Martha E Shenton, Brandon Staglin, Carlos A Larrauri, Kathryn Eve Lewandowski, Tina Kapur,
Schizophrenia, 2025, vol. 11
Enabling FAIR data stewardship in complex international multi-site studies Tashrif Billah, Kang Ik K Cho, Owen Borders, Yoonho Chung, Michaela Ennis, Grace R Jacobs, Einat Liebenthal, Daniel H Mathalon, Dheshan Mohandass, Spero C Nicholas, Ofer Pasternak, Nora Penzel, Habiballah Rahimi Eichi, Phillip Wolff, Alan Anticevic, Kristen Laulette, Angela R Nunez, Zailyn Tamayo, Kate Buccilli, Beau-Luke Colton, Dominic B Dwyer, Larry Hendricks, Hok Pan Yuen, Jessica Spark, Sophie Tod, Holly Carrington, Justine T Chen, Michael J Coleman, Cheryl M Corcoran, Anastasia Haidar, Omar John, Sinead Kelly, Patricia J Marcy, Priya Matneja, Alessia McGowan, Susan E Ray, Simone Veale, Inge Winter-Van Rossum, Jean Addington, Kelly A Allott, Monica E Calkins, Scott R Clark, Ruben C Gur, Michael P Harms, Diana O Perkins, Kosha Ruparel, William S Stone, John Torous, Alison R Yung, René S Kahn,
Schizophrenia, 2025, vol. 11
Sample ascertainment and clinical outcome measures in the Accelerating Medicines Partnership® Schizophrenia Program Jean Addington, Lu Liu, Amy Braun, Andrea Auther, Monica E Calkins, Barbara A Cornblatt, Cheryl M Corcoran, Paolo Fusar-Poli, Melissa J Kerr, Catalina V Mourgues-Codern, Angela R Nunez, Dominic Oliver, Gregory P Strauss, Barbara C Walsh, Luis K Alameda, Celso Arango, Nicholas J K Breitborde, Matthew R Broome, Kristin S Cadenhead, Ricardo E Carrion, Eric Yu Hai Chen, Jimmy Choi, Michael J Coleman, Philippe Conus, Covadonga M Diaz-Caneja, Dominic Dwyer, Lauren M Ellman, Masoomeh Faghankhani, Pablo A Gaspar, Carla Gerber, Louise Birkedal Glenthøj, Leslie E Horton, Christy Hui, Grace R Jacobs, Joseph Kambeitz, Lana Kambeitz-Ilankovic, Matcheri S Keshavan, Sung-Wan Kim, Nikolaos Koutsouleris, Jun Soo Kwon, Kerstin Langbein, Kathryn E Lewandowski, Daniel Mamah, Patricia J Marcy, Daniel H Mathalon, Vijay A Mittal, Merete Nordentoft, Godfrey D Pearlson, Inge Winter-van Rossum, Rene S Kahn,
Schizophrenia, 2025, vol. 11
Accurate DNA Methylation Predictor for C9orf72 Repeat Expansion Alleles in the Pathogenic Range. Naren Ramesh, Alexandria Evans, Kevin Wojta, Zhongan Yang, Marco Mp Boks, René S Kahn, Sterre C M de Boer, Sven J van der Lee, Yolande A L Pijnenburg, Lianne M Reus, Roel A Ophoff
2025

Fellowships & Awards

1985 Fulbright Scholarship
1989 Ramaer Medaille
2009 Member Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts and Sciences