Director, Neuroscience Research, CAMH
Head of Neurogenetics Section, CAMH
Head, Tanenbaum Centre for Pharmacogenetics
Co-Director, Division of Brain and Therapeutics, Dept. of Psychiatry, and
Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Institute of Medical Science,
University of Toronto
Fellow, Royal Society of Canada
Dr. Kennedy has training in three major areas: neuroscience, clinical psychiatry, and molecular genetics. His main research interest over the past 20 years has been the identification of susceptibility genes for psychiatric disorders. His discoveries include: 1) the role of the DRD4 gene in ADHD, 2) the DRD3 gene predicting risk for Tardive Dyskinesia, 3) the 5HTTLPR genetic marker predicts risk for antidepressant induced mania. A major current project led by Dr. Kennedy is examining a large sample (N=20,000) of patients to determine the usefulness and cost-benefit of genetic testing applied to choice and dosage of psychiatric medications in clinical care. He has published pioneering findings relating gene variants in the dopamine, serotonin, and neurodevelopment systems to psychiatric disorders, neuroimaging (PET and MRI) and to treatment response. Dr. Kennedy has published more than 600 scientific articles with over 20,000 citations, and he is an active lecturer at numerous international conferences.