The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has selected Michael Minzenberg to receive a 2009 Clinical Scientist Development Award for his pioneering work in treating schizophrenia.

A physician and assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Minzenberg was one of only 14 scientists nationwide chosen for this honor. He will receive foundation support of $135,000 per year for three years to help fund his research.

Minzenberg studies the neurochemical systems that regulate cognitive, emotional and social processes and how this circuitry goes awry in personality disorders and schizophrenia. treatments, preventions and cures for human diseases.

The funding will help Minzenberg find out if a novel medication called modafinil, which elevates neurotransmitter functions, can restore cognitive processes that are impaired in schizophrenics. He will track the effectiveness of the drug using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the prefrontal cortex, which controls executive abilities such as planning, using rules, inhibiting inappropriate actions and prioritizing sensory input.

Minzenberg said, “This new funding will help advance the use of fMRI in determining if a promising medication can reduce or even alleviate altogether some of the persistent cognitive outcomes of the illness.”

More information: www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/newsroom/releases.