CBDB is a multidisciplinary neuroscience laboratory in which basic and clinical scientists work side by side exploring neural mechanisms and models of mental and cognitive function and of neuropsychiatric illness. Experiments are performed at many levels of inquiry, from basic molecular biology of the gene to clinical examinations of patients. A major area of investigation of this laboratory is neural mechanisms implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and its treatment.
The laboratory is organized very much like a university department, with different units or divisions represented by groups of investigators, at various levels of training and experience, working on related experiments. The divisions include:
1) clinical studies, headed by Michael Egan, which conducts inpatient and outpatient studies primarily of patients with schizophrenia, and is currently focused around a large sibling pair and parent-patient trio analysis of genes related to various biological traits (intermediate phenotypes) associated with genetic risk for schizophrenia;
2) A neuropsychology division, headed by Terry Goldberg, which conducts clinical and neuroimaging studies of basic cognitive processes implicated in the biology of schizophrenia and its treatment;
3) a neuropathology division headed by Joel Kleinman and Thomas Hyde, which conducts a variety of molecular studies of gene and protein expression in postmortem tissue of patients with psychiatric and drug abuse disorders;
4) A neuroimaging division, headed by Daniel Weinberger, Karen Berman, and Richard Coppola, which uses various neuroimaging techniques, such as EEG, PET, SPECT, fMRI, MRSI, and in the near future, MEG, to probe relevant physiologic, neurochemical, and neuropharmacological aspects of schizophrenia and of siblings at genetic risk for schizophrenia;
5) an animal modeling division, headed by Barbara Lipska, which explores in animals, including rats and genetically engineered mice, basic molecular mechanisms related to neurodevelopmental changes implicated in the brains of patients with schizophrenia.
You can explore more detailed information relating to the laboratory
and the workings of its various divisions in several ways. The Program
page describes the various research projects that comprise the main areas
of interest broken down mostly along methodological lines. The Staff page
points to individual information. Publications lists recent papers and
points to those that are available online. The Image area gives a brief
tour of our neuroimaging work and access to some online image data. Conferences
has our speaker schedule.
We welcome your comments
E-mail them to: Dr.
Richard Coppola. Thank you!