Nobel Laureate visit
January 2007Nobel Laureate of Medicine Professor Arvid Carlsson visited the Neuroscience and Psychiatry Unit in November 2006, to meet its staff and give an informal talk. He also presented to a conference of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Special Interest Group in Psychopharmacology hosted by the Unit, outlining the status of and prospects for neurotransmitter targets in the treatment of schizophrenia.
Professor Carlsson was made Nobel Laureate in 2000 for his discovery of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the late 50s - now accepted as key to the experience of pleasure and reward and important in causing addictions, depression and psychosis - and subsequent research into its behavioural functions. In the 60s, he established that drugs for the treatment of psychotic illnesses work by blocking dopamine receptors.
He is currently working on a new approach to drugs for schizophrenia and hopes to collaborate with the neuroscience group in Manchester. Head of the Unit Professor Bill Deakin said: “Arvid Carlsson remains as creative as ever, and inspired our PhD students and post-docs with his insights into new ways of targeting dopamine in the treatment of psychosis.”
