Psychiatry Neuroscience Division
The Psychiatry Neuroscience Division conducts research on the basic neurobiology underlying mental illness and promotes translation of basic research findings into novel approaches for therapeutic treatment of the mentally ill.
Research
In addition to the individual faculty laboratories linked below, we maintain two research facilities that greatly facilitate the experimental capabilities of our scientists. The Rodent Behavioral Core conducts animal experiments that model key features of mental illness in humans, and these models are available to researchers across campus to test critical causal links between brain biology and behavioral change. The Quantitative Morphology Laboratory provides investigators with sophisticated microscopic imaging capability, including high resolution imaging of living brain cells in animal models of mental illness, or post-mortem ultrastructure analysis of human brain tissue associated with psychiatric disease.
Education & Training
Graduate students and postdoctoral trainees are supported by institutional and individual training grants. Our faculty are committed to training the next generation of researchers by providing a stimulating research environment, recruiting outstanding graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, conducting research at the highest level, and publishing in high-impact journals. We are fully engaged in national and international conferences and receive scientific grants, while maintaining substantial ongoing support from external funding agencies for our individual research programs, including the National Institutes of Health, Simons Foundation, Rita Allen Foundation, Klingenstein Foundation, Whitehall Foundation, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, Welch Foundation, Angelman Foundation, Foundation for Prader-Willi Research, and Global Foundation for Peroxisomal Disorders, among others.
News from Psychiatry Neuroscience
The Society of Biological Psychiatry newsletter featured an interview with Ruth Asch, Ph.D., about her paper In Vivo PET Imaging of Presynaptic Density Reveals Stress-Associated Synaptic Deficits Related to Behavioral and Molecular Alterations in Rats, published in Biological Psychiatry CNNI.
Ram Madabhushi, Ph.D., received a $10,000 Special Grant Incentive from UT Southwestern for faculty pursing federal awards to advance science and benefit patients. Dr. Madabhushi, a Tenured Associate Professor, studies how the organization of chromosomes and integrity of the genetic material in neurons affect their functions, to understand mechanisms regulating experience-driven adaptations in behavior and how defects could cause autism spectrum disorders, age-related neurological disorders, and some cancers.
Center Times Plus featured Seungwon (Sebastian) Choi, Ph.D., following his Klingenstein Fellowship Award in Neuroscience.
Contact Us
Division of Psychiatry Neuroscience
UT Southwestern Medical Center
5323 Harry Hines Blvd
Dallas, TX, 75390-9070