Zachary Kaminsky

Zachary Kaminsky is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and jointly appointed in the Department of Mental Health in the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto where he studied psychiatric epigenetics and helped to create and advance some of the first techniques used to study DNA methylation across the entire genome. After a fellowship at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, he joined the Psychiatry Department faculty at Johns Hopkins and heads a laboratory located within the Mood Disorders Center. The focus of his laboratory is the study of the epigenetic underpinnings of psychiatric disease with a particular focus on mood disorders. Epigenetic marks stand at the interface of genes and the environment as they can be reprogrammed by various factors including stress as well as maternal nurturing or neglect. Dr. Kaminsky’s laboratory focuses on basic science research, novel molecular and bioinformatic methods development, and translational studies. A specific focus of his work is the development of disease predictive biomarkers utilizing DNA methylation marks in peripheral tissues to diagnose the risk to a future mental illness. Dr. Kaminsky is actively studying epigenetic marks in relation to suicide and postpartum depression.