2015 Research Grant Recipient

Dr. Michael McCarthy works for both the Veteran’s Affairs San Diego Healthcare System and the UCSD Department of Psychiatry. He is a graduate of Ohio State University of Medicine and Public Health. His current research primarily surrounds Circadian (internal 24 hour) Clock Genes and Bipolar Disorder. In addition, he also has a study into the Pharmagenetics (genetic markers guiding pharmacological management) in Treatment of Refractory Depression (treatment-resistant depression).

The funding will specifically go to the Circadian Clock Genes in Bipolar study along with the Veterans Affairs/BLR&D Career Development Award in Biomedical Research. The project’s goal is to ascertain how genetic variation in clock genes contributes to the therapeutic response to lithium in patients with bipolar disorder and how genetic variants affect clock function at the cellular and molecular level.