Laura Jean Bierut, MD

Approved Mentor (Primary, Mentoring Committee)
Washington University School of Medicine

Dr. Laura Bierut is the Alumni Endowed Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine. She is a physician scientist who has built a successful research program devoted to understanding the role of genetic and environmental factors in health behaviors. She has significant experience in genetic studies of smoking behaviors, addiction, and other psychiatric and medical illnesses. Dr. Bierut is the Program Lead for Precision Medicine within the Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences at Washington University, with the goal of making genomic resources more accessible and useful to researchers and facilitating the use of genomics in the clinical care of patients. She is currently leading efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of genetically directed treatment in addiction. In recognition of her significant research contributions, Dr. Bierut has won multiple research awards, and she has been honored by the American Psychiatric Association and Washington University for her efforts to teach and mentor medical students, residents, post-doctoral trainees, and junior faculty.