Paul Tooney

Biography

Paul has a keen interest in understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of diseases, so that better diagnoses and treatment strategies can be developed. He completed a BSc (Hon) Class 1 (1985-1989) and a PhD (awarded 1995) from the University of Newcastle, Australia. He then travelled to the USA (1995-1998) and completed post-doctoral research at the University of Wisconsin. His research background during his PhD and postdoctoral work was in cancer biology where he gained experience in cellular and molecular biology techniques. In March 1998, Paul returned to Australia and took the opportunity to focus on the neurobiology of schizophrenia and joined the Schizophrenia Research Institute (formerly the Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders) as a Research Officer (1998-2000) and Senior Research Officer (2000-2004). In 2004, Paul was appointed to an academic position in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, Faculty of Health University of Newcastle. Paul’s research from 1998 to date has focused on the neurobiology and genetics underpinning schizophrenia. He has conducted and collaborated on world-class studies detailing the changes to gene expression in the brain and also the blood from patients with schizophrenia. These studies showed that people with schizophrenia have distinct changes in their expression of genes in their brains and the blood. Interestingly many of these studies suggest changes in genes that have roles in the immune system and inflammatory processes/ As part of these efforts Paul played a major role in the establishment of the Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank (ASRB), which recruits participants with schizophrenia and controls and collects clinical and cognitive data as well as blood samples for genetic analysis and MRI structural brain scans from the participants. This huge data resource is currently being investigated by many groups to improve our understanding of what causes schizophrenia so that we can better identify who is likely to develop schizophrenia so that we can identify new treatments or preventative strategies for this devastating disorder. More recently Paul established two new projects. One project is investigating why people with schizophrenia have more inhibitory interneurons in the white matter underneath the cortex of brain regions known to be affected in schizophrenia. The other project is investigating the levels of auto-antibodies directed against neuronal antigens in people with schizophrenia.

Research Interest

Neurosciences, Neurogenetics