Carlos Alberto Zarate, Jr MD

Dr. Carlos Alberto Zarate, Jr., M.D., is an NIH Distinguished Investigator and Chief of the Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch. He earned his medical degree from the Catholic University of Cordoba in Argentina. He completed a clinical psychopharmacology fellowship at McLean Hospital in 1993 and remained on staff until 1998. In 1998, Dr. Zarate joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. In 2001, Dr. Zarate joined the Mood and Anxiety Disorders program at the NIMH and, in 2009, formed the Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch (ETPB). A multidisciplinary translational research team conducts the research in the ETPB. The Branch also provides training to develop the next generation of clinical translational researchers.

Dr. Zarate's current research focus is on the neurobiology of severe mood disorders and developing novel medications for treatment-resistant depression, bipolar disorder, and suicide. His areas of expertise include biological and pharmacological aspects of mood disorders in adults. The ETPB conducts neurobiological and proof-of-concept studies utilizing novel compounds and biomarkers (magnetoencephalography and polysomnography, positron emission tomography, functional MRI, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy) to identify potentially relevant mechanisms, drug targets, and biosignatures of treatment response. Dr. Zarate has published more than 430 papers on these topics.