Karoly Mirnics Named Director of Munroe-Meyer Institute

A top administrator and physician/scientist at Vanderbilt University, Karoly Mirnics, M.D., Ph.D., has accepted the position of director of the Munroe-Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

The selection of Dr. Mirnics was announced on February 4th by UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., and culminates a nationwide search. The appointment, which is effective in July, is pending approval of University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds, Ph.D., and the University of Nebraska Board of Regents.

Dr. Mirnics will replace J. Michael Leibowitz, Ph.D., who retired in 2015 after serving as MMI director for eight years and holding several key posts at MMI over 41 years there. During the search, Wayne Stuberg, Ph.D., an associate director of MMI, has been serving as interim director.

Dr. Mirnics is the James G. Blakemore Professor of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt and vice chair for research, department of psychiatry. He also serves as associate director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development and is a senior fellow of Vanderbilt Institute for Integrative Biosystems Research and Education (VIIBRE). Dr. Mirnics has a broad background in molecular neurobiology of brain diseases with more than 20 years of experience in the field.

Dr. Mirnics will be joining the UNMC faculty along with his wife, Zeljka Korade-Mirnics, D.V.M., Ph.D., who will serve as professor of pediatrics. Her research is in cholesterol and lipid metabolism in the nervous system, with a particular interest in Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome.