Department of Psychiatry

Center for Schizophrenia Research

Welcome to the Center for Schizophrenia Research web site.

The Center for Schizophrenia Research is a collaborative entity composing researchers at both the University of Colorado Denver and the Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The research is primarily grant funded through a variety of funding organizations.

The Schizophrenia Center uses molecular biological information about schizophrenia derived from genetic studies to develop new therapeutic approaches to the illness.  The Center has identified genetic loci and candidate genes that appear to function abnormally in schizophrenia. 

The Schizophrenia Center has initiated the development of new therapeutics for schizophrenia based on these discoveries. It has discovered changes in the brains of persons with schizophrenia who have histories of smoking.  It has used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify possible brain areas affected by nicotinic agonists in schizophrenia.  Finally, it has obtained evidence that these nicotinic mechanisms also are involved in the therapeutic action of the most successful treatment for schizophrenia, clozapine. 

The Schizophrenia Center intends to enhance this work in the future to continue the development of new therapeutics for schizophrenia and to improve the chances of clinical response to clozapine, as well as to continue its role in identifying molecular targets for future translational research.
Researchers in the Center are also concerned with finding new therapeutic approaches to this illness. New drugs are constantly being evaluated. Additionally, medications that function through novel brain pathways are being tested.

The Schizophrenia Center also strives to understand the development of schizophrenia across the lifespan. Studies of pregnant women, infants and children at risk for developing schizophrenia may lead to earlier detection and possible prevention.

The Schizophrenia Center’s clinical research is based in the Colorado Psychiatric Hospital Building at 4201 E 8th Avenue (on the corner of 8th Avenue and Bellaire, 4 blocks East of Colorado Blvd.) Our administration and laboratory research is located at the new Fitzsimmons facility, Research Center North.