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Biography

Monte S. Buchsbaum, MD, has joined the faculty of the University of California, San Diego as Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Radiology. He heads the new NeuroPET Center and leads an effort in developing an expanded research effort with positron emission tomography. Located in Sorrento Valley about 2 miles north of the main campus at 11388 Sorrento Valley Road and close to the UCSD MRI and MEG facilities, the Center will be capable of metabolic studies with fluorodeoxyglucose, and initial radioligand studies of the serotonin transporter with DASB, brain amyloid with PIB, and the dopamine receptor with fallypride for cortical and thalamic receptors and raclopride for striatal receptors. An expanded on-site radiochemistry facility will developed a repertoire of molecular probes for imaging. Coordination with MRI for anatomical analysis of images will be a central feature.

Dr. Buchsbaum was previously Director of the Neuroscience PET Laboratory at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City, has been a pioneer in brain-mapping studies of schizophrenia, both with topographic EEG and PET explorations of antipsychotic-drug effects and the role of the prefrontal cortex and attention in this complex disorder. Since 1980, the primary focus of Dr. Buchsbaum's research has been brain imaging, combining positron emission tomography, computerized EEG and evoked potential brain mapping, and later magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging. While in the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Buchsbaum published some of the first PET studies in psychiatry. In 1982, Dr. Buchsbaum left the NIMH to head the Brain Imaging Center at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and carried out studies on the prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia using FDG-PET and EEG. In 1992, Dr. Buchsbaum moved to New York to head the Neuroscience PET laboratory, focusing on pharmacological response and PET-FDG. In 1998 he published the first report on diffusion tensor imaging in schizophrenia, extending his work on potential deficits in the prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia. He is Editor of Psychiatry Research and Co-Editor of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging. He has published over 500 research reports in scientific journals, the majority on positron emission tomography. He is included in the Institute of Scientific Information data base as one of the most highly-cited scientists (ISIHighlyCited.com).