Mental Illness and Addiction Axis

Leaders:
Chawki Benkelfat
Kathryn J. Gill

Research Themes:
– Mood and Impulse Control Disorders
– Mechanisms of Action of Anti-Depressant Medications
– Clinical Psychopharmacology
– Neuropsychiatric Genetics
– Addiction
– Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Unravelling pathophysiology to design novel therapeutics is a priority for modern psychiatric research and a key goal of this research axis. The emphasis of this group is to investigate the behavioural and brain correlates of neurotransmitter dysfunction, using functional neuroimaging techniques, genetic dissection and pharmacological manipulations, while ensuring continuous dialogue between basic and clinical research and rapid knowledge transfer from the bedside, to the bench and back.

The Mental Illness and Addiction Axis research team has significant expertise in the social and translational neuroscience of mental disorders and utilizes a wide array of complementary state-of-the-art behavioural and biological tools to define specific proof-of-concept hypotheses of pathophysiology.