Janina R. Galler is Professor of Psychiatry at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

, and Psychiatrist in the Chester M. Pierce MD Division of Global Psychiatry at

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

. She co-founded the 45-year

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

Nutrition Study in the

Lesser Antilles The Lesser Antilles is a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea, forming part of the West Indies in Caribbean, Caribbean region of the Americas. They are distinguished from the larger islands of the Greater Antilles to the west. They form an arc w ...

, in

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, with the late Sir Dr. Frank C. Ramsey, who was knighted for their joint efforts in eliminating malnutrition from Barbados. Dr. Galler has served as Director of this study since 1973. The Barbados Nutrition Study is a unique longitudinal study that has shown how the intergenerational legacy of poverty and disadvantage result from early childhood malnutrition and associated childhood adversities. A new facet of her research is its focus on epigenetics, or changes in gene expression that occur without change the structure of DNA. This new work explores potentially reversible mechanisms that explain how early malnutrition alters behavior and health over the life span and across generations. In 1984, Galler published ''Nutrition and Behavior'', part 3 in a 5-volume series, ''Human Nutrition: A Comprehensive Treatise''. Galler has authored more than 200 publications and has edited two books on nutrition and behavior. She also is a researcher in Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Center for the Developing Child of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. She was previously a Senior Scientist at the Judge Baker Children's Center of

in Boston's

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. Galler received more than 30 years of uninterrupted research support from the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

.Grantome.com on NIH grants of Dr. Janina R. Galler
/ref> During her career, she served as a member and chairperson of the National Advisory Council of the Eunice K. Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Development (NICHD) and was a member of the NIH Directors Advisory Council. She was also President of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Alumni Association (2016-2020).

Education

Sophie Newcomb College H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College was the coordinate women's college of Tulane University, located in New Orleans, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It was founded by Josephine Louise Newcomb in 1886 in memory of her daughter. Newcomb was the fir ...

Tulane University The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...

, Chemistry and Philosophy, summa cum laude, 1967-1969 *

Albert Einstein College of Medicine The Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a Private university, private medical school in New York City. Founded in 1953, Einstein is an independent degree-granting institution within the Montefiore Einstein Health System. Einstein hosts Doc ...

, Doctor of Medicine, 1972 *

, residency training in Psychiatry and Child Psychiatry (began July 1, 1972) In addition to English, Galler speaks and writes in

Castilian Spanish In English, Castilian Spanish can mean the variety of Peninsular Spanish spoken in northern and central Spain, the standard form of Spanish, or Spanish from Spain in general. In Spanish, the term (Castilian) can either refer to the Spanish langu ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, Portuguese,

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and

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

Research

Galler's research focus is on early life malnutrition and its long-term, cascading effects on mental health development from childhood and over the life span. The also studies the intergenerational effects of childhood malnutrition. Her research has been conducted in low-resource settings and also in the laboratory, where she studies animal models of prenatal malnutrition. Since 1973, she has served as the Director of the 45+-year longitudinal Barbados Nutrition Study.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Galler, Janina R. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women scientists American public health doctors American child psychiatrists Harvard Medical School faculty NIH Women Scientists Project American nutritionists Tulane University alumni Albert Einstein College of Medicine alumni Cognitive development researchers 21st-century American Jews Obesity researchers Massachusetts General Hospital residents American women psychiatrists American women academics 21st-century American women American women public health doctors