Jennifer Forsyth, PhD
Clinical Instructor, Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA

Schizophrenia: Finding the Path from Genes to Complex Syndrome
Schizophrenia is a complex syndrome associated with diverse clinical, cognitive, and neurobiological features that can vary substantially from one patient to the next. Identifying the core mechanisms underlying this syndrome and improving patient outcomes has been a major challenge. In this talk, Dr. Forsyth will present her work using a pharmacological probe in humans to examine one compelling etiologic model of schizophrenia, the NMDA receptor dysfunction model. She will then discuss her work using functional genomics to systematically examine which aspects of brain development are affected by genetic risk for schizophrenia and related disorders. Finally, she will present initial evidence suggesting that schizophrenia may be better conceptualized as a cluster of syndromes, with related but dissociable etiologies.

This free lecture is  part of the candidate review for an assistant professor position in Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology.