Suma Jacob, MD, PhD

Suma Jacob, MD, PhD is a distinguished child-adolescent-adult psychiatrist as well as a neuroscientist who is widely recognized for her research in neuroendrocrinology and neurodevelopmental disorders across the lifespan. She did her PhD and post-doctoral research in the emerging field of social neuroscience. Suma studied hormonal pathways and how compounds act as modulator signals to influence another human’s biology, mood, and unconscious behaviors. After her medical training, her research focused on biomarkers and treatment targets for neurodevelopmental conditions affecting social and compulsive behaviors such as autism. See http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/10966149 for her early career history and work on neuropeptide hormones.

Dr. Jacob’s curiosity about organizational leadership and social dynamics inspired her to become a certified group relations consultant and to direct or staff experiential learning conferences nationally and internationally for over two decades. At the University of Minnesota, Dr. Jacob was competitively awarded the inaugural Gloria Segal Family Endowed Professorship and served as an Associate Director of the Medical Scientist Training Program. To reach the largest number of diverse children and families across the region, she became the Chief Medical and Science Officer of Fraser, a large non-profit community mental health organization focused on innovative integrated health implementation. In her research career, Dr. Jacob has led clinical trials and biomarker/genetics studies on autism and has a focus on novel phenotyping methods using technology and computational psychiatry. Her laboratory has also studied related developmental disorders including ADHD, tic disorders, OCD, and anxiety. Dr. Jacob’s current research focuses on data-driven approaches in early development that will differentially predict dimensional and categorical diagnostic outcomes.