We are proposing the creation of a Mental Health Clinical Research Center (MHCRC) in Schizophrenia Studies to replace our current Developing Clinical Research Center (DCRC). This section serves as an introduction to the MHCRC proposal. Our DCRC has now been in place for three and one half years. In that time we have focused our attention on our original aim,. To examine the contributions of genetic and epigenetic (or environmental risk) factors in schizophrenia etiology. We have also met another of our original goals and established a significant neuroimaging component to our Center. Finally, we have established strengths in diagnosis, phenomenology, neuroimmunology, neuropathology, and molecular biology. We now believe that we are now in an excellent position to link neuroimaging and neurobiological research to genetics and epidemiology of schizophrenia. In this way, we hope to make systematic observations that establish both likely etiological factors occurring from prenatal life and their specific relationship to biological abnormalities in adults who develop schizophrenia. The proposed MHCRC will have five cores: 1) Administrative, Biostatistical and Data Management; 2) Diagnosis and Treatment Research Core (DIRC); 3) Neurodevelopmental and Genetic Epidemiology Research Core (NGRC); 4) Brain Imaging Research Core (BIRC); and 5) Genomics and Neurobiology Research Core (GNRC). Each core will be responsible for supporting critical Center-wide needs and for conducting Core-specific research. Many of these functions require MHCRC support including the provision of standardized research-quality diagnoses and assessments that can be used across projects; the ability to maintain patients in a medication-free state and to recruit medication-naive subjects; the maintenance of several large birth cohorts; and the provision of state-of-the-art neuroimaging and laboratory facilities.
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