Shitij Kapur

Shitij Kapur, MBBS, PhD, FMedSci, is the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Dentistry and Health Sciences and Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Health) of the University of Melbourne.[1] He was formerly Dean and Head of School at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London,[2] and professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Kapur's research has made major contributions to the understanding of psychosis and antipsychotic treatment. From 2010-2015 he co-lead ,[3] an international consortium of scientists from 19 institutions from 9 EU countries, NEWMEDS, one the largest academic-industry research collaboration projects to find new methods for the development of drugs for schizophrenia and depression.

Shitij Kapur
EducationAll India Institute of Medical Sciences (MBBS)
Neuroscience at Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto (PhD)
Known forSchizophrenia and treatment
Alzheimer’s and treatment
Imaging and therapeutics
AwardsJoel Elkes Award of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP)
Paul Janssen Award of the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP)
A.E. Bennet Award of the Society for Biological Psychiatry
Research Prize from the World Congress of Biological Psychiatry
Scientific career
FieldsPsychiatry, Neuroscience
InstitutionsFaculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne

Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London

University of Toronto

Career

Research focus/interests

Professor Kapur's research aims to understand the basis of psychosis and the improvement of antipsychotics through the use of brain imaging, clinical studies, and animal models.

Notable contributions to research

Kapur's work on antipsychotics has had an important influence on the understanding of how these drugs work and how they are used. Through brain imaging and clinical studies, he has found that antipsychotics block dopamine D2 receptors to varying degrees, thereby making a strong argument for lower doses.[4] His research has also contested the “delayed onset” theory of antipsychotics, suggesting that action begins within the first few days of treatment.[5] His articulation of the aberrant salience hypothesis[6] as an explanation linking dopamine to psychosis is a classic in the field having been cited over 2,000 times.

Past appointments

Prior to his current position as Dean and Assistant Vice Chancellor (Health) at the University of Melbourne, Kapur was the Executive Dean and Professor of Psychiatry at King's College London (till 2016). Prior to that Kapur was a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. While there, he served as the Vice-President for Research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. From 2001 to 2007, he was a Canada Research Chair at the University of Toronto

Awards and Honours

Kapur has won many awards, including the Joel Elkes Award of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) in 2007, Paul Janssen Award of the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CINP), A.E. Bennett Award of the Society for Biological Psychiatry, and the Research Prize from the World Congress of Biological Psychiatry.[7]

Kapur is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (UK), a Fellow of King's College London and has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Copenhagen (2012[8]).

Leadership roles and Contributions to the Field

Kapur was a non-Executive Director of the South London and Maudsley Hospital (2010-2016), one of Europe's pre-eminent psychiatric hospitals. He currently serves as a non-Executive Director of the Royal Melbourne Hospital one of Australia's leading tertiary hospitals. He serves as a Director on the Board of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), Australia's leading independent biomedical research Institute, and also serve on the Board of the St. Vincent's Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne. He is the Chair of the Executive Board of the Melbourne Academic Centre for Health, a partnership of 10 hospitals and seven independent medical research institutes and the University of Melbourne.

He is a founding board member of the Schizophrenia International Research Society and served on the Board of Trustees from 2010–14, and as an elected Treasurer from 2015-2017. Kapur was an Executive Committee member of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology and served as the Secretary of the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology from 2009 to 2012

Kapur has served on numerous editorial boards, including those of Schizophrenia Research, Schizophrenia Bulletin, BMC Psychiatry, Archives of General Psychiatry, World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, American Journal of Psychiatry, and Neuropsychopharmacology.[7]

He is an external grant referee for many research councils including the Medical Research Council, UK, the Medical Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Stanley Research Foundation, USA, and the National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, USA.[7]

Publications

Kapur has published extensively, with over 300 peer-reviewed articles,[9] which have been cited over 45,000 times with an H-index of 104, and eight of his publications cited over a 1,000 times each.

References

  1. "Melbourne appoints new Dean of Medicine". The Melbourne Newsroom. The University of Melbourne. May 6, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  2. "A welcome from the Executive Dean, Professor Shitij Kapur". www.kcl.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  3. NEWMEDS. "NEWMEDS - Managing Entity". www.newmeds-europe.com. Retrieved 2018-07-02.
  4. Ginovart, N; Kapur, S (2012). "Role of dopamine D(2) receptors for antipsychotic activity". In Gross, G; Gayer, MA (eds.). Current Antipsychotics. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp. 27–52. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-25761-2_2. ISBN 978-3-642-25760-5.
  5. "The 'delayed onset'of antipsychotic action –an idea whose time has come and gone". J Psychiatry Neurosci. 31 (2): 93–100. March 2006.
  6. Kapur, Shitij (January 2003). "Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia". The American Journal of Psychiatry. 160 (1): 13–23. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.160.1.13. ISSN 0002-953X. PMID 12505794.
  7. "CV Shitij Kapur" (PDF). www.hms.harvard.edu. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  8. https://research.ku.dk/prizes-awards/honorary-doctorates/
  9. "Shitij Kapur: Google Scholar". Retrieved 8 June 2015.
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