Congratulations to  SUNY Upstate professor of neuroscience and physiology Cynthia Weickert PhD, who recently was awarded $1.9 mil from the NIH to study Neuroinflammation and Neurogenesis in Schizophrenia.

Cynthia Weickert, PhD awarded $1.9 mil to continue decades of research studying schizophrenia

From Weickert:

“For the past 27 years, I have focused on determining the biological basis for schizophrenia after my twin brother was diagnosed with the disease. During the first 15 years, I investigated pathways related to neurodevelopment, until I discovered signs of neuroinflammation in the cortex of people with schizophrenia. This finding opened up a whole new avenue of research for me, one that looks at neuro-damaging events. This work involves defining the role of macrophages, astrocytes, and endothelial cells in human brain inflammation. In this grant, I am determining the negative consequences of chronic inflammation on stem cells, precursor cells, and immature brain neurons. Because this grant is focused on a brain region with ongoing development throughout life, it links my two lines of research, neurodevelopment and neuroinflammation, together.”

For more on Weickert’s work and inspiration for her decades of research, you can watch the TEDx Talk she delivered in Syndey here: