Dr. Kambiz Pahlavan to Participate in Collaborative Study on Schizophrenia Treatment

Schizophrenia is a devastating chronic mental disorder for which there is a lack of new and effective medication. The researchers participating in this pilot study have identified a novel signaling mechanism in the brain that will be explored for treatment of schizophrenia symptoms. One of 19 pilot projects being funded in 2012 through CTSI, the long-term goal will be to develop drug candidates for clinical testing.

The Medical College of Wisconsin has announced that a collaborative team of researchers from Rogers Memorial Hospital, Marquette University and Concordia University have been awarded a one-year $50,000 grant from the Clinical and Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin (CTSI). The grant will be used to study possible new pharmaceutical treatments for schizophrenia. Primary investigators on the collaborative team include Kambiz Pahlavan, MD, DLFAPA, FAACAP, Medical Director for Rogers Memorial Hospital-Milwaukee and Director of Rogers Center for Research and Training; M. Behnam Ghasemzadeh, PhD, associate professor of biomedical sciences at Marquette University; Daniel Sem, PhD, associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Concordia University-Wisconsin; and Joseph McGraw, PhD, assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Concordia University-Wisconsin.

CTSI is part of a national consortium of eight partnering medical research institutions: the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), Marquette University, Milwaukee School of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Froedtert Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, the VA Medical Center and the BloodCenter of Wisconsin. Support for the Pilot Award Program comes from the National Institutes of Health, the John and Jeanne Byrnes CTSI Award, MCW’s Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin program and MCW’s Bioengineering Center. Read the release here.