Evolution of glutamate models of psychosis

Gitte Moos Knudsen is Past-President of ECNP and professor at Dept. Neurology, Rigshospitalet and University of Copenhagen, Denmark. She is also chair of the ECNP TWG Psychedelics. She is a translational neurobiologist and clinical neurologist with interest in advanced methodological developments that she subsequently applies in her research to address pertinent neurobiological and clinical issues. Her scientific interests include the neurobiology of cerebral neurotransmission and neuropharmacological interventions with particular emphasis on brain imaging (PET, MR, SPECT, EEG). Her lab investigates human brain disease mechanisms and predicts brain responses to categories of neuromodulatory interventions as well as treatment efficacy. For this purpose, they use PET brain scanning to image brain receptors and receptor occupancy, and fMRI to evaluate drug effects on the brain hemodynamic response as well as the brains regional interactions, i.e., functional connectivity.

Bita Moghaddam is currently the Ruth Matarazzo Professor of Behavioral Neuroscience at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Oregon. Her research focuses on understanding the neuronal basis of complex behaviors that are critical to mental health, and is distinguished by the substantial impact on the field (H-index 78). Her work contributed to the discovery of the first non-monoamine targeting compound targeting metabotropic glutamate receptors for treatment of schizophrenia and potential mechanisms to explain the antidepressant effects of ketamine. Her research has been funded continuously since 1991, including a MERIT award from the National Institute of Mental Health.