Neuropharmacology & Psychopharmacology

BIOGRAPHY

Markus Heilig received his MD in 1986 and his PhD in Psychiatric Neurochemistry in 1989, both from Lund University, Sweden. His thesis work described for the first time the anti-stress and anxiety reducing effects of neuropeptide Y (NPY). He received postdoctoral training with prof. George Koob at the Neuropharmacology Dept., The Scripps Research Institute, LaJolla, CA 1990 - 1992. Upon returning to Sweden and completing residency and fellowship training in psychiatry, he served at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Swede, in various clinical and academic leadership capacities until 2004. At this time he became the Clinical Director and chief, Laboratory of Clinical and Translational studies, at the National Inst on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Heilig's research interests are centered around regulation of negative effect, as it applies to affective, anxiety and addictive disorders. Current program efforts are focused on identifying novel treatment targets for pharmacological treatments of alcohol dependence, and developing such treatments from preclinical target discovery and validation to early human proof-of-concept trials. Currently pursued targets include several systems involved in stress- and negative effect, such as NPY, CRH, neurokinins, nociceptin, glutamate and cannabinoids.