Dr. Swift received first-rate medical training at New York University Medical School and Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital.  Under a Merit Scholarship for research training, he analyzed aspects of nerve and muscle physiology under Professor William Van der Kloot.  An outstanding teacher of human genetics, Dr. Kurt Hirschhorn, introduced him to the fundamental genetic principles that he used throughout his scientific career.

He was Board-certified in Internal Medicine several years after an internship and a year as a Resident.  His later success in genetic research depended on the clinical skills and judgment he developed during his medical training.

He encountered a family with Fanconi anemia during some post-doctoral research with Kurt Hirschhorn, which led him to the topic of cancer genes.  He presented his insight into studying cancer genes at a Department of Medicine Grand Rounds.  An enthusiastic reception from this sophisticated audience led him to consider testing his idea, and Bill Van der Kloot then allocated the research space he needed to do this, even though the topic was genetics, not physiology.  No one had tried, or even thought of, studying the health of blood relatives of a person with a recessive cancer-prone disorder.  The long-term, successful outcome of this program is described in the section titled Our Research.

He continued and extended his genetic studies after moving to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1972.  He also took on part-time responsibility for training medical students and residents in Internal Medicine.  In Chapel Hill the two pillars of his research program came into their own: a laboratory of Dr. Swift’s design for cellular and later molecular studies and a strong group of individuals – Ruby Massey, Project Coordinator; Charlie Chase, biostatistician; and Daphne Morrell, epidemiologist.  This group applied the highest ethical and scientific standards to their work, staying with the research until Dr. Swift moved to New York in 1992.

Ruby, Charlie, Daphne, and another assistant, Susan Shenton, helped him design, and later executed, the A­‑T Family Study which enlisted relatives in these families for long-term follow-up of their health.  No one had ever attempted this research strategy before and no one has done this since.  This particular study design continues to yield new scientific information pertinent to understanding disease.

Dr. Swift’s experience in using documented medical data from extended families served him well in studying other potential genetic causes of a common disease.  When his staff noticed a substantial amount of psychiatric illness in the medical records of patients and blood relatives in Wolfram syndrome families, he recognized that mutations in the WS gene might be an important factor in mental illness.  He enlisted a psychiatrist with excellent research experience – Dr. Ronnie Gorman Swift – to review and analyze all records available from Wolfram syndrome families.  They found that diverse psychiatric illnesses were frequent and severe in the WS patients, who have two mutated WS genes.  They went on to establish that a single WS mutation predisposed carriers to mental illness, culminating in Index-Test Method validation based on finding mutations in the families.

Over the next decade, Dr. Swift’s work led him to recruit and collaborate with numerous leaders in scientific fields and make many critical discoveries:

• Dr. Swift worked closely with faculty and students in the School of Public Health and was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Epidemiology.  Dr. Larry Kupper, known worldwide for his applications of biostatistics in epidemiology, developed the rigorous statistical framework for the Index-Test Method, which came from Dr. Swift’s intuitive original insight into applying molecular genetics to common diseases.

• A talented young molecular geneticist, Dr. Nick Lench, joined Dr. Swift’s group shortly after getting his PhD in London.  They found the genetic marker most tightly linked to the A‑T gene, a crucial step in finding the actual gene.  Nick had to return to England before we actually cloned the gene, which was done years later by another group. He is now Director of the Wales Gene Park in Cardiff.

• Dr. Swift was able to design and equip a research facility that was ideally suited to the interacting clinical and molecular genetic studies he supervised, after he came to New York Medical College in 1992.  The laboratory staff and Dr. Swift identified the blood samples needed from research subjects, which the clinical research assistants collected from across the US.  Interaction flowed both ways, since the lab staff supplied the data for analysis by the epidemiologist in the next office.  The two groups talked and met together frequently.

• Dr. Mihaeles Polymeropoulos of the National Institute of Mental Health approached Dr. Swift to collaborate in mapping the Wolfram syndrome gene.  He had an automated method for analyzing the 100s of genetic markers required for this task.  The localization of the WS gene to chromosome 4 was published in Nature Genetics in 1994.

• As it happened, the first practical application of the index-test method tested the hypothesis that the most common cystic fibrosis mutation protects against asthma.  Dr. Swift had compiled some preliminary data raising this possibility while he was at Chapel Hill.  The pediatric pulmonary doctor, Scott Schroeder, who collaborated in this study, later analyzed the chronic lung disease that frequently shortens the lives of A‑T patients.

• About the same time, Dr. Swift recruited Dr. Claudio Sandoval, a pediatric oncologist, to review the cancers that are the other common cause of death in A‑T patients.  His finding that these patients should receive full-dose chemotherapy has already prolonged the lives of some A‑T children with cancer.  Claudio went on to analyze other clinical aspects of A‑T and to become, at a young age, a full Professor of Pediatrics.

Dr. Swift directed the sample collection and laboratory studies that confirmed that A‑T mutations predispose female carriers to breast cancer.  His statistical analysis using the Index-Test Method showed that the risk of breast cancer for carriers was almost 4-fold greater than the risk for non-carriers.

In the late 1990s he supervised the automated DNA sequencing of mutations from A­‑T patients and their families.  He found that patients who had one missense mutation had milder symptoms, slower progression, and longer survival than those who had two of the other types of mutations.  This shows the value of comparing molecular findings with the clinical data available through the comprehensive, continuing A­‑T Family Study.  He used the same strategy to examine the mortality rates in the 100s of A­‑T families participating in the study and to analyze the survival of A­‑T mutation carriers with breast cancer.

Dr. Swift is a well-respected authority in human disease genetics.  His experience spans clinical medicine, systematic clinical research, and molecular genetics.  His work has been published repeatedly in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Science, among others.  Overall, he has published 84 papers in peer-reviewed journals.  He taught the first course anywhere on the topic of the genetics of common diseases, at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health.  He is listed in Who’s Who in America.

Dr. Ronnie Swift is the Network Chief of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health for the Generations+/Northern Manhattan Health Network, the Chief of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, and Associate Medical Director for Metropolitan Hospital Center and a Professor and Associate Chairman of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at New York Medical College. She is also on the Faculty of Neuroscience Education Institute, a provider of continuing medical education for physicians and behavioral health professionals.

She is a 1969 graduate of the City College of New York, where she majored in Chemistry and graduated with honors in Chemistry. She attended the University of North Carolina School of Medicine where she was elected to AOA, the Medical Honor Society, and received the George C. Thrasher, Jr. Award “given annually to that member of the graduating class who during his/her medical school experience has shown most outstanding performance and ability in Psychiatry.”

In June 2006, Dr. Swift was elected Vice President of the Medical Executive Board at Metropolitan Hospital Center. In addition, in January 2006, Dr. Swift will appear in the 61st edition of Who’s Who of American Women. In September 2005, she was awarded Honorary Membership in the World Psychiatric Association for her “contributions to psychiatry.” In May 2005, she was named the first Sidney E. Frank Visiting Professor in Psychiatry. This program establishes a visiting professor exchange program between New York Medical College and Hadassah University in Israel. In June 2005, Dr. Swift received the “Teacher of the Year” Award and in June 2004, she received an award for her Teaching and Leadership in the Psychiatry Residency at Metropolitan Hospital Center.

In April 2004, Dr. Swift co-chaired the Scientific Program Committee for the World Psychiatric Association Meeting held at Metropolitan Hospital Center titled “Psychiatry in its Contemporary Context, Comprehensive Health and Integration of Services.” She also presented a paper titled “Integration of Mental Health Services: A New York Perspective” at the meeting.

Dr. Swift serves on numerous clinical committees and task forces for Metropolitan Hospital Center, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and New York Medical College to improve patient care, patient safety and to establish best practices. She has help develop guidelines for best practice on topics including Psychiatric Assessment in the Emergency Room, Suicide Risk Assessment, Methadone Treatment, Detoxification Treatment, Integrating Depression Screening in Primary Care, and Developing a Culture of Patient Safety to name a few. She is on the Faculty Senate, the Institutional Review Board, the Promotions Committee and is the Psychiatric Consultant to the Deans Office at New York Medical College.

Dr. Swift is a frequent invited speaker nationally. She has lectured on topics as varied as Diagnosing and Treating Depression in Primary Care, Treating Tobacco Addiction in Psychiatric Patients, Diagnosis and Treatment of Psychiatric Illness in Different Ethnic and Racial Groups, Comprehensive Health and Integration of Services, Current Treatment Options for Bipolar Disorder, the Use of Atypical Antipsychotics, Treating Depression During Pregnancy, Selecting an Antidepressant, Distinguishing Bipolar from Unipolar Depression, The Ever-Evolving Bipolar Spectrum – From Bipolar Mania to Mixed Mania and Beyond, Impact of Depression on Treatment of Chronic Illness, Interaction of Biology and Environmental Stress in the Development of Affective Disorders, What is Stress, Is Suicide Predictable?, Selecting Antidepressants, The Neurobiological Informed Treatment of Bipolar Disorder and Using Genetic History in the Diagnosis of Psychiatric Illness.

Dr. Swift has done research on the Wolfram Syndrome since 1980 and is considered a national and international expert on the clinical manifestations of this disorder.

Click here to learn more about our detailed plans.