Modeling the Psychopathological Dimensions of Schizophrenia: From Molecules to Behavior

Mikhail V. Pletnikov, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor in Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He received his M.D. in 1986 from I.M. Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy, Moscow, Russia and his Ph.D. in Normal Physiology in 1990 from P.K. Anokhin Institute of Normal Physiology, Moscow, Russia. He did his post-doctoral training under Dr Timothy H. Moran (1996-1999) at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and under Dr Kathryn M. Carbone (1996-1999) at the laboratory of pediatric and respiratory viral infections, the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He joined faculty in Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University in 1999. His current research interests focus on understanding pathogenesis of human psychiatric disease with neurodevelopmental origin, e.g., schizophrenia and autism with particular emphasis on a role of gene-environment interactions and the neuro-immune interplay in the complex pathogenesis of psychiatric conditions. Dr Pletnikov is also Director of the Behavioral Core at the School of Medicine.

John Waddington is currently Professor of Neuroscience in Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Dublin. He received a BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in Neuropharmacology followed by a DSc in Neuroscience from the University of London. After working with the UK Medical Research Council in the Division of Psychiatry at their Clinical Research Centre, he joined RCSI and became Chairman of Clinical Pharmacology in 2004. In 2003, he became the first person from RCSI to be elected to membership of the Royal Irish Academy; he has received the Lilly Neuroscience Award from the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Basic Science from the Schizophrenia International Research Society. His research is focused on the pathobiology and psychopharmacology of psychotic illness, mutant models of schizophrenia and other psychoses, and the pathobiology, psychopharmacology and mutant modelling of movement disorder. John Waddington is currently Professor of Neuroscience in Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), Dublin. He received a BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD in Neuropharmacology followed by a DSc in Neuroscience from the University of London. After working with the UK Medical Research Council in the Division of Psychiatry at their Clinical Research Centre, he joined RCSI and became Chairman of Clinical Pharmacology in 2004. In 2003, he became the first person from RCSI to be elected to membership of the Royal Irish Academy; he has received the Lilly Neuroscience Award from the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology and the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Basic Science from the Schizophrenia International Research Society. His research is focused on the pathobiology and psychopharmacology of psychotic illness, mutant models of schizophrenia and other psychoses, and the pathobiology, psychopharmacology and mutant modelling of movement disorder.