The laboratory of Dr. Gabriella Gobbi is located in the Research and Training Building at McGill University. Her laboratory has pursued and expanded the tradition of the Neurobiological Psychiatry Unit, one of the first translational psychiatry laboratories in Canada, founded in 1980 by Dr. Claude De Montigny, Dr. Pierre Blier, and Dr. Guy Debonnel.
The laboratory’s ‘bench to bedside’ approach bridges the gap between fundamental and clinical research. Psychiatric conditions affect 1 in 5 Canadians at any given point and 1 in 2 Canadians are or have been affected by mental illness by the time they turn 40 (source). Despite this staggeringly high incidence and its devastating impact, science still lacks a comprehensive understanding of how these illnesses manifest in the neurobiology. The goal of our lab is to elucidate the mechanisms underlying psychiatric illnesses, using both preclinical models and clinical research on patients living with these mental illnesses. Furthermore, we are exploring the therapeutic potential of psychoactive drugs that currently have no clinical use. Drugs such as cannabis, hallucinogens, and amphetamines have effects on the brain that overlap areas that are affected in psychiatric conditions. Therefore, there is a large potential that these drugs may enter clinical use if we are able to understand more about their mechanism and the conditions in which they can be safely administered. The techniques employed in the lab include optogenetics, in vivo electrophysiology, polysomnography, behavioural pharmacology and neurochemistry.
