Matthew Kayser

Matthew S. Kayser, assistant professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Penn Medicine, was recognized with the 2017 Clinical Scientist Development Award from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF). Dr. Kayser, whose research focuses on issues at the intersection of sleep and mental illness, will receive a grant of $495,000 over three years to support the research project, “Identifying biomarkers of treatment response in insomnia and depression with a metabolomics platform.”

“I am honored to have been selected by the Doris Duke Foundation,” said Dr. Kayser. “Our hope is to use these resources to address important questions at the intersection of sleep disorders and psychiatric illness.”

Dr. Kayser’s research will focus on deciphering a molecular basis for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) in humans in an effort to open new treatment avenues, with critical implications for insomnia and mood disorders. Dr. Kayser will use a metabolomics platform to identify biomarkers of response to CBT-I in euthymic and depressed individuals, opening a path towards novel therapeutic targets.

“I see in my clinic every week that insomnia is a major obstacle towards remission from depression, emphasizing the need to find new targets for treating insomnia, as well as biomarkers to help predict treatment response to available therapies,” Dr. Kayser added.