Biomarkers for Schizophrenia

Speakers

Kevin M. Spencer, PhD

VA Boston Healthcare System
Harvard Medical School
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Kevin Spencer is a research health scientist at VA Boston Healthcare System and an assistant professor at the Harvard Medical School Department of Psychology. His interests lie in understanding how cognitive processes arise from the dynamics of neural systems, both in healthy individuals and in clinical populations. He focuses on three areas: neural synchrony in healthy individuals and in schizophrenic patients, ERP indices of executive control (and the way they are affected in schizophrenia), and prefrontal cortex function in schizophrenia.

Spencer completed his graduate training at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has received several awards for his work, including the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression Young Investigator Award and the Scottish Rite Fellowship in Schizophrenia.

Georg Winterer, MD

Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
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Georg Winterer is associate professor of psychiatry, chief of laboratory for molecular neuroimaging and electrophysiology, and clinical director of general psychiatry at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.

Winterer received his medical degree from the Medical School of the Free University of Berlin and obtained board certification in psychiatry and psychotherapy. He then went on to complete his doctoral dissertation in neuroscience. Before coming back to Germany to join the faculty of Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Winterer worked as a clinical psychiatrist at the National Institutes of Health. While at NIH, Winterer also performed research at the clinical brain disorders branch as well as at the laboratory of neurogenetics.

Gunvant K. Thaker, MD

Maryland Psychiatric Research Center
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Gunvant Thaker is a research psychiatrist with a broad research interest in understanding the etiology of schizophrenia leading to early preventive and intervention strategies in psychosis. His recent work has focused on examining clinical and biological vulnerability markers of schizophrenia. Data are being collected for formal genetic linkage analysis of the pursuit abnormality in relatives of patients with schizophrenia. Other studies use pharmacological probes in order to identify preventive strategies for psychosis in at risk subjects and to reverse the subtle cognitive deficits observed in such high risk subjects.

Thaker obtained his medical degree from Baroda University in India and completed his residency in psychiatry at the Medical College of Ohio and at the Lafayette Clinic. In addition to being professor at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, he serves as adjunct professor at the University of Texas South Western Medical Center and is the chief of the schizophrenia related disorder program at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. Thaker has been appointed associate editor of Schizophrenia Bulletin and serves as reviewer for several psychiatric journals, such as American Journal of Psychiatry and Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Daniel C. Javitt, MD, PhD

Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research
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Daniel Javitt is professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the New York University School of Medicine. He also serves as director for the program in cognitive neuroscience and schizophrenia at the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research in Orangeburg, New York. Javitt's research interests include cognitive and neurophysiological abnormalities in schizophrenia and mechanisms of phencyclidine (PCP) induced psychosis.

Javitt received both his MD and PhD degrees from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York and completed residency training in psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center. Javitt is a recipient of research awards from the American Psychiatric Association, the Society for Biological Psychiatry, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and the State of New York. He has written numerous articles, chapters, reviews, and pamphlets. This literature has been featured in Scientific American, American Journal of Psychiatry, Archives of General Psychiatry, Molecular Pharmacology, Saddock and Kaplan's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, and the television special, "Prisoners of the Brain."

Angelo DePalma

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Angelo DePalma is a freelance writer based in Newton, New Jersey. In 1984, he received a PhD in chemistry from the State University of New York, Stony Brook. His work appears in a dozen pharmaceutical industry trade magazines, and he is the author of a bestselling book on vitamins and supplements.