Professor Michael O’Donovan
Michael O’Donovan is Professor of Psychiatric Genetics in the Department of Psychological Medicine and Neurology and Deputy Director of the Medical Research Council’s Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics.
Professor O’Donovan’s research interests are focused on understanding the causes of major psychiatric disorders and the application of a range of molecular genetic and statistical tools. He brings to the Research Institute extensive research expertise in Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and Alzheimer’s disease.
Together with colleagues in the MRC Centre, his work has helped identify the first robustly supported susceptibility genes for Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder, the existence a shared molecular genetic aetiology for those disorders, the first new genes for common forms of Alzheimer’s in over 15 years, and the first identification of the involvement of chromosome copy number variants in the aetiology of typical cases of ADHD.
His work focuses emerging genetic findings to make sense of pathophysiological processes underpinning these disorders, and will be a key part of his research activities and contribution to the new Research Institute.
As well as research, Professor O’Donovan is a practising Consultant Psychiatrist.