Prof. Richard Ebstein

Director, Department of Research – Herzog Hospital
Director, Scheinfeld Center for Human Behavioral Genetics, Hebrew University
Professor, Division of Psychiatry – Ben- Gurion University
Graduated Ph.D. from Yale University
Discovered ‘novelty-seeking’ gene
ebstein@mscc.huji.ac.il

For full list of articles click HERE

THE RESEARCH DEPARTMENT AT HERZOG HOSPITAL

The Research Department at the Herzog Hospital specializes in Human Genetics and is devoted to the research and teaching in this broad area. The Center emphasizes applying the knowledge provided by the completion of the first phase of the Human Genome Project towards a molecular understanding of the role of genes in partially contributing to all facets of human behavior and aging.
Research done at Herzog Hospital is interdisciplinary, and combines a broad approach to studying complex behaviors and aging using techniques of molecular genetics and psychology. Prof. Ebstein gives courses both in the Faculty of Social Sciences (Mt. Scopus) and in collaboration with the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School (Ein Kerem). The Center attracts students of the Social Sciences, students from the Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences of the Faculty of Science and from the Hadassah Medical School.
Current research projects include: Molecular Genetic Studies of Normal Personality, Psychological and Genetic Aspects of Eating Disorders, especially Anorexia Nervosa, Mapping Genes to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Molecular Genetic Investigations of Autism, Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder, Molecular Genetic and Personality Aspects of Substance Abuse including Smoking and of course genetic studies of human ageing.
Together with Ms. Rachel Bachner-Melman he is organizing a symposium at the World Congress of Biological Psychiatry in Vienna this summer where he and Rachel will present their studies on personality and genetic factors contributing to anorexia. They are actively pursuing their studies of social, psychological and genetic risk factors for anorexia in a large group of anorexic and non-clinical families that Ms. Bachner-Melman has recruited in the course of her doctoral studies. Prof. Ebstein and Ms. Rachel Bachner-Melman have recently published a unique article characterizing a gene contributing to human altruism. This work has been highlighted in Maariv (an Israeli newspaper), the Jerusalem Post and will appear in Newsweek (International Edition).

Together with Ms. Bachner-Melman, he is organizing a symposium at the World Congress of Biological Psychiatry in Vienna this summer, where he and Rachel will present their studies on personality and genetic factors contributing to anorexia nervosa. This disorder is characterized by a relentless pursuit of thinness and obsessive fears of gaining weight despite emaciation. It often becomes chronic and has the highest mortality of all psychiatric disorders. Costs of hospitalization and medical care are substantial and there is little understanding of the etiology of anorexia and no effective drug therapy. Recent studies suggest that genes underlie a substantial portion of the liability. Ms Bachner-Melman has recruited a large group of anorexic and non-clinical families in the course of her doctoral studies. The objectives of this anorexia research project are to understand the relationships between environment, genes, personality, behavior and recovery in women with AN, to provide targets for pharmacological treatment and to benefit clinical treatment and public health.

Recent publications 2004-2005

Bacher-Melman, R., Gritsenkso, I., Nemanov, L., Zohar, A. H., Dinan, T. G., & Ebstein, R. P. (2005). Association between the insulin-like growth factor 2 (igf2) and scores on the raven’s advanced progressive matrices. submitted.
Bachner-Melman, R., Gritsenkso, I., Nemanov, L., Zohar, A. H., Dinan, T. G., & Ebstein, R. P. (2005). Dopaminergic polymorphisms associated with self-report measures of human altruism: A fresh phenotype for the dopamine d4 receptor. Mol Psychiatry, IN PRESS.
Bachner-Melman, R., Zohar, A. H., Bacon-Shnoor, N., Elizur, Y., Nemanov, L., Gritsenko, I., et al. (2005). Linkage between vasopressin receptor avpr1a promoter region microsatellites and measures of social behavior in humans. Journal of Individual Differences, IN PRESS.
Bachner-Melman, R., Zohar, A. H., Elizur, Y., Nemanov, L., Gritsenko, I., Konis, D., et al. (2004). Association between a vasopressin receptor avpr1a promoter region microsatellite and eating behavior measured by a self-report questionnaire (eating attitudes test) in a family-based study of a nonclinical population. Int J Eat Disord, 36(4), 451-460.
Bachner-Melman, R., Zohar, A. H., Nemanov, L., Heresco-Levy, U., Gritsenko, I., & Ebstein, R. P. (2005). A family-based study shows association between the insulin-like growth factor 2 (igf2) gene and eating behavior (eat-26) in a non-clinical population. Am J Psychiatry, IN PRESS.
Bah, J., Quach, H., Ebstein, R. P., Segman, R. H., Melke, J., Jamain, S., et al. (2004). Maternal transmission disequilibrium of the glutamate receptor grik2 in schizophrenia. Neuroreport, 15(12), 1987-1991.
Benmoyal-Segal, L., Vander, T., Shifman, S., Bryk, B., Ebstein, R., Marcus, E. L., et al. (2005). Acetylcholinesterase/paraoxonase interactions increase the risk of insecticide-induced parkinson’s disease. Faseb J.
Buskila, D., Cohen, h., Neuman, L., & Ebstein, R. P. (2004). An association between fibromyalgia and the dopamine d4 receptor exon iii repeat polymorphism and relationship to novelty seeking personality traits. Mol Psychiatry, 9(8), 730-731.
Dina, C., Nemanov, L., Gritsenkso, I., Rosolio, N., Osher, Y., Herescu-Levi, U., et al. (2004). Fine mapping of a region on chromosome 8p gives evidence for a qtl contributing to individual differences in an anxiety-related personality trait, tpq harm avoidance. Neuropsychiatric Genetics, IN PRESS.
Kremer, I., Bachner-Melman, R., Reshef, A., Broude, L., Nemanov, L., Herescu-Levi, U., et al. (2005). Association of the serotonin transporter with smoking behavior. Am J Psychiatry, IN PRESS.
Lichtenberg, P., Bachner-Melman, R., Ebstein, R. P., & Crawford, H. J. (2004). Hypnotic susceptibility: Multidimensional relationships with cloninger’s tridimensional personality questionnaire, comt polymorphisms, absorption, and attentional characteristics. Int J Clin Exp Hypn, 52(1), 47-72.
Lowe, N., Kirley, A., Hawi, Z., Sham, P., Wickham, H., Kratochvil, C. J., et al. (2004). Joint analysis of the drd5 marker concludes association with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder confined to the predominantly inattentive and combined subtypes. Am J Hum Genet, 74(2), 348-356.
Manor, I., Corbex, M., Eisenberg, J., Gritsenkso, I., Bachner-Melman, R., Tyano, S., et al. (2004). Association of the dopamine d5 receptor with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (adhd) and scores on a continuous performance test (tova). Am J Med Genet, 127B(1), 73-77.
Stessman, J., Maaravi, Y., Hammerman-Rozenberg, R., Cohen, A., Nemanov, L., Gritsenko, I., et al. (2005). Candidate genes associated with ageing and life expectancy in the jerusalem longitudinal study. Mech Ageing Dev, 126(2), 333-339.