Scientific Report 2008

The Harold L. Dorris Neurological Research Institute

Schizophrenia and major depression affect many millions of people worldwide. Treatment of these psychiatric diseases requires an understanding of their underpinnings, and this need is the driving force for research at the Harold L. Dorris Neurological Research Institute. Founded in 1999 with a $10 million long-term commitment by Ms. Helen Dorris through the Harold L. Dorris Foundation, named in her brother's honor, the institute has attracted an international cadre of scientists from France, Switzerland, Sweden, Mexico, Italy, Spain, and Hungary in disciplines such as neurology, immunology, chemistry, molecular biology, and endocrinology to study neurological disorders.

The Harold L. Dorris Neurological Institute also funds the Helen Dorris Fellow in Schizophrenia, a named fellowship position for a postdoctoral researcher to study aspects of schizophrenia and depression from molecular and cellular neurobiological perspectives. The current fellow is Olivia Osborn from Oxford University in England. The visiting professors at the institute in 2007 were the well-known electrophysiologist and member of the French Academy of Sciences, Henri Korn from the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France; noted pharmacologist and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Lars Terenius from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden; and molecular immunologist Hermann Gram from Novartis Global Research, Basel, Switzerland.

The major lines of research carried out by in vitro and in vivo techniques are on the effects of galanin on depression and neurogenesis and on IL-1 signaling in the nervous system and its involvement in stress, depression, and febrile responses.