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 Biography   Robert M. Kessler, M.D. Roentgen Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences Associate Professor of Psychiatry Vanderbilt University Dr. Kessler is a neuroradiologist and nuclear medicine physician whose research centers on cerebral neurotransmission and energy metabolism and their relationship to psychiatric and neurological disorders. He initiated the positron emission tomography (PET) program at the National Institutes of Health and served as its first director, conducting numerous studies on cerebral metabolic changes in schizophrenia and affective disorders. After moving to Vanderbilt in 1984, where he was named the first Roentgen Professor of Radiology in 2004, Dr. Kessler began developing radioligands (radioactive binding molecules) to study dopamine D2 receptors in schizophrenia. This resulted in the definition of a new class of radioligands that could be used with PET or with SPECT, another neuroimaging technology, to study these receptors. Applying PET scans, he and his group have used these radioligands to examine the regional blockade of cortical and limbic dopamine D2 receptors by typical and atypical antipsychotic drugs; examined changes in dopamine D2 receptors in unmedicated schizophrenic subjects; and developed methods for estimating phasic dopamine release and baseline dopamine levels in the thalamus, substantia nigra, limbic regions and cortex regions of the brain. The team is currently applying these methods to studying attention-deficit disorder, schizophrenia and drug abuse. Dr. Kessler joined NARSAD’s Scientific Council in 1998. |
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