Amit Etkin '06: Winner of the Transformational Research Award

Amit Etkin, MD, PhD, was presented with the Transformational Research Award at the VP&S Alumni Reunion on April 24, 2026, in New York City.

Dr. Etkin is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist whose work is reshaping how mental illness is understood and treated by advancing biologically grounded approaches to psychiatric care. Through research identifying neurobiological subtypes of psychiatric disorders, he has helped pioneer models of precision psychiatry that aim to match treatments to individual patients rather than broadly defined diagnostic categories.

In 2019, Dr. Etkin left a tenured professorship at the Stanford University School of Medicine to found Alto Neuroscience, a biotechnology company focused on precision psychiatry. Under his leadership, the company has advanced multiple investigational therapies into Phase 2 clinical trials using biological markers designed to identify patients most likely to benefit from treatment.

His research has combined neuroimaging, clinical studies, and machine learning to identify brain circuit patterns that cut across traditional psychiatric diagnoses, including shared neural abnormalities implicated in multiple major mental health disorders. At Stanford, where he served on the faculty of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, he developed methods to help predict individual treatment response, advancing efforts to bring precision medicine into psychiatry.

Dr. Etkin earned a PhD from Columbia University in 2005 in the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel, followed by an MD from VP&S in 2006. He has received the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award and is among the most highly cited researchers in his field.

This award honors an alum within 25 or fewer years of graduation from VP&S who is making transformational contributions to biomedical research. Learn more about the VP&S Alumni Association’s annual awards program and submit a nomination for yourself or a fellow alum.