Stephen Rayport, MD PhD
Professor of Clinical Neurobiology

Research Psychiatrist II,
NYSPI

 

 

Stephen Rayport, MD PhD did undergraduate work at Harvard, where he studied the evolution of vision with George Wald. He did MD-PhD training at Columbia with Eric Kandel where he studied the development of simple learning mechanisms. He trained in Psychiatry at Columbia and the NYS Psychiatric Institute. His current research focuses on the mesoaccumbens dopamine neurons that are thought to mediate the rewarding effects of abused drugs, as well as to figure importantly in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. He has shown that these neurons release glutamate from a subset of their synapses. In transgenic mice with fluorescent dopamine neurons, he is exploring the dynamic interaction between the dopamine and glutamate release. He is using transgenic techniques to reduce or eliminate glutamatergic transmission to address the role of the glutamatergic cotransmission, and more broadly the relative contributions of different glutamatergic pathways to drug-dependent and schizophrenia-related behaviors. On the postsynaptic side, he is examining the trafficking of dopamine receptors involved in the modulation of single accumbens synapses. He is the recipient of research grants from NIDA, NIMH, and NARSAD.

Education and Training

Undergraduate:  Harvard College, BA, 1972-1975
Graduate:  Columbia University, PhD, 1975-1981
Medical School:  Columbia Univ. College of Physicians & Surgeons, MD, 1975-1982
Internship:  Montefiore Medical Center / Albert Einstein Coll. Medicine, Internal Medicine, 1982-1983
Residency:  Columbia / NYSPI, Psychiatry, 1983-1986
Fellowship:  Columbia University, Dana Fellowship, 1986-1988
Board Certifications:  American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Specialties

• Psychiatry

Contact information

Address:
NYS Psychiatric Institute
Room 3916  Unit/Box:62
1051 Riverside Drive
New York, NY   10032

Phone: 212-543-5641
Fax: 212-504-3135
Stephen.Rayport@columbia.edu

Personal Homepage

research summary

Animal Models of Psychiatric Disease, Synapses and Circuits

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Publications

1. Chuhma N, Tanaka K, Hen R, Rayport, S: Functional connectome of the striatal medium spiny neuron.  Journal of Neuroscience  2011;31: 1183-92

2. Gaisler-Salomon I, Miller GM, Chuhma N, Lee S, Zhang H, Ghoddoussi F, Lewandowski N, Fairhurst S, Wang Y, Conjard-Duplany A, Masson J, Balsam P, Hen R, Arancio O, Galloway MP, Moore HM, Small SA, Rayport S: Glutaminase-deficient mice display hippocampal hypoactivity, insensitivity to pro-psychotic drugs and potentiated latent inhibition: relevance to schizophrenia.  Neuropsychopharmacology  2009;34: 2305-22

3. Chuhma N, Choi WY, Mingote S, Rayport S: Dopamine neuron glutamate cotransmission: frequency-dependent modulation in the mesoventromedial projection.  Neuroscience  2009;164: 1068-83

4. Mizuno T, Schmauss C, Rayport, S: Distinct roles of presynaptic dopamine receptors in the differential modulation of the intrinsic synapses of medium-spiny neurons in the nucleus accumbens.  BMC Neuroscience  2007;8: 8

5. Masson J, Darmon M, Conjard A, Chuhma N, Ropert N, Thoby-Brisson M, Foutz A, Parrot S, Miller GM, Jorisch R, Polan R, Hamon M, Hen R, Rayport S: Mice lacking brain/kidney phosphate-activated glutaminase (GLS1) have impaired glutamatergic synaptic transmission, altered breathing, disorganized goal-directed behavior and die shortly after birth.  Journal of Neuroscience  2006;26: 4660-4671