Mark Rasenick is currently Distinguished UIC Professor of Physiology & Biophysics, and Psychiatry, and Director of the Biomedical Neuroscience Training Program at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and a Research Career Scientist at the Jesse Brown VAMC.

Dr. Rasenick’s work has focused on G protein signaling in the nervous system and the relationship of neurotransmitter activation to rapid modification of the cytoskeleton.  He has been particularly interested in how G proteins and the cytoskeleton work in concert to modify synaptic shape and to form a molecular basis for the action of antidepressant drugs and, perhaps, the etiology of depression.  Dr. Rasenick has been funded (continuously since 1984) by the NIH.  He has also been funded by other federal agencies (VA, NIA, NSF, DOD) and by industry sources.  He has served on many scientific review panels (NIH, NSF, DOD), provided extensive editorial activities and is the author of numerous publications.  Dr. Rasenick has received honors both for teaching and research, including the Searle Young Faculty Award from the Chicago Community Trust, the University Scholar Award and Distinguished Faculty Award from the University of Illinois, a Research Scientist Award from the NIMH, and a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship from the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences.  Dr. Rasenick is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and he received the 2023 Anna Monika prize for depression research. Additionally, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Science of Cuba.

In addition to research and teaching, Dr. Rasenick is active in public policy.  He is currently chair of the American Brain Coalition.  While a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow (1999-2000), he was a staff member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, (D Mass.).  He is also involved in international outreach for neuroscience and has organized programs designed to foster international cooperation in the basic and clinical neurosciences in Vietnam, Cuba and throughout Latin America.  In 1970, he was a member of the People’s Peace Treaty delegation to Hanoi and, more recently, has worked on reconciliation projects in Southeast Asia.