Wei Du, MD, has been appointed chair of the Department of Psychiatry, effective June 1. Dr. Du has served with distinction as interim chair since July of last year. He previously served as vice chair of the department and program director of the General Psychiatry Residency program. He is a clinical professor of psychiatry. He also holds an appointment as a professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Physiology at Drexel, as well as a professorship at Liaoning Medical Center and Liaoning People’s Hospital in Liaoning, China.

Dr. Du earned his medical degree at China Medical University and served as a teaching assistant in the university’s Brain Research Institute before immigrating to the United States. In 1992, he joined our predecessor school, Medical College of Pennsylvania, as a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Pharmacology. He was later appointed to the faculty of the combined MCP-Hahnemann School of Medicine as a research assistant professor of pharmacology. He completed the Drexel/Hahnemann General Adult Psychiatry Residency program in 2003, serving as chief resident his last year.

After his residency, Dr. Du was appointed clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the College of Medicine and attending psychiatrist at the Horsham Clinic. In 2009, he was recruited to join the clinical development team at Adolor Biopharmaceuticals to develop analgesics with novel mechanisms of action. He returned to Horsham as lead psychiatrist for the clinic’s Center of Excellence for Addiction Treatment and medical director of its clinical research program. In 2012, he became an attending psychiatrist at Friends Hospital. He attended the program in Leadership Development for Physicians in Academic Health Centers at Harvard School of Public Health in 2014.

Dr. Du’s research has ranged from basic science projects in neuroendocrinology, behavioral pharmacology and neurobiology of addiction, through all phases of clinical studies in psychiatric and pain therapeutic areas. He is widely published, including book chapters and peer-reviewed papers.

 
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