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Professor Pradeep J. Nathan

Biography

BSc(Hons) (Melb), PhD (Mellb), MRACI, CChem, FCP

Professor Pradeep Nathan obtained his BSc(Hons) in Pharmacology (1994) and PhD in Psychopharmacology (1998) from the University of Melbourne. He held positions from Post-Doctoral Fellow to Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the Brain Sciences Institute (Swinburne University) (1998-2004) prior to moving to the Department of Physiology as Associate Professor of Physiology and NHMRC R. Douglas Wright Fellow (2005) and then to the School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine as Associate Professor of Neuroscience (2007). In 2008, he moved to the UK to take up a joint appointment as Director of Neuroscience at GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals and Senior Fellow at the University of Cambridge, Department of Psychiatry. He also holds an Adjunct appointment as Professor, in the School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine at Monash University.

Professor Pradeep Nathan


Email: Professor Nathan

Research Interests

  • Behavioural Neuroscience
  • Drug Discovery
  • Neuropharmacology of Cognition and Emotion
  • Functional and Molecular Brain Imaging (fMRI, PET, Electrophysiology)
  • Schizophrenia
  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Drug addiction

Research Overview

Professor Pradeep Nathan’s research focuses on understanding the neurochemical and neural substrates of cognition and emotion and psychiatric and neurological endophenotypes. He uses cognitive, functional and molecular neuroimaging techniques (i.e. fMRI, Electrophysiology (EEG and MEG), PET) to understand where and how neuropharmacological agents modulate cognitive and emotional processes and associated neural networks. He is also interested in the application of these approaches to CNS drug discovery through development of functional biomarkers which might aid in the development of more refined and targeted treatment approaches for cognitive and emotional dysfunction in psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Professor Nathan has published over 100 peer reviewed journal papers in international journals. He has received a number of research awards including Australasian Society for Psychiatric Organon Research Award (1998), the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Ole Rafaelson Fellowship Award (2002), the NHMRC R. Douglas Wright, Career Development Award (2004), the Australian Young Tall Poppy Science Award (2006), the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), Independent Investigator Award (2007) and the British Association for Psychopharmacology, Wyeth Psychopharmacology Award (2008). Professor Nathan is on the editorial board of a number of journals including International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, Pharmacology Biochemistry Behaviour, Human Psychopharmacology (Field Editor), CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics and Drug Discovery Today.

Publications

Nathan P.J., Bullmore E.T. (2009). From Taste Hedonics to Motivational Drive: Central m-Opioid Receptors and Binge Eating Behaviour. Int. J. Neuropsychopharmacol (In press).

Ellis J.A., Nathan P.J., Villemagne V.L., Mulligan R.S., Saunder T., Smith C.L., Welch J., Woodward M.,  Wesnes K.A., Savage G., Rowe C.C. (2009). Galantamine-induced improvements in cognitive function are not related to alterations in a4b2 nicotinic receptors in early Alzheimer’s disease as measured in vivo by 2-[18F]Fluoro-A-85380 PET. Psychopharmacology, 202(1-3):79-91.

Cropley V.L., Innis  R.B., Nathan P.J., Brown A.K., Sangare J.L., Lerner A., Ryu Y.H.,  Sprague K.E., Pike V.W., Fujita M. (2008). Small Effect of Dopamine Release and No Effect of Dopamine Depletion on [18F]Fallypride Binding in Healthy Humans. Synapse, 62(6):399-408.

Mann C., Croft R.J., Scholes K.E., Dunne A., O’Neill B.V., Leung S., Copolov D. Phan K.L. Nathan P.J. (2008).  Differential effects of acute serotonin and dopamine depletion on prepulse inhibition and P50 suppression measures of sensorimotor and sensory gating in humans. Neuropsychopharmacology, 33(7):1653-66.

Kerestes R., Labuschagne I., Croft R.J., O’Neill B., Bhagwagar Z., Phan K.L., Nathan P.J. (2008).Serotonergic and Noradrenergic Antidepressants Modulate Attentional Bias to Positive Facial Emotional Stimuli during Emotional Expression Decoding. An Event Related Potential (ERP) Study. Psychopharmacology, 202(4):621-34.

Cropley V., Fujita M., Bara-Jimenez W., Brown A., Zhang X.,  Sangare J., Herscovitch  P., Pike V., Hallett M., Nathan; P.J., Innis  R. (2007). Pre- and post-synaptic dopamine imaging and its relation with frontostriatal cognitive function in Parkinson disease: PET studies with [11C]NNC 112 and [18F]FDOPA. Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging, 163(2):171-82.

Leung S., Croft R.J., Baldeweg T., Nathan P.J. (2007). D1 and D2 receptor stimulation does not modulate mismatch negativity (MMN) in humans. Psychopharmacology, 194(4):443-51. 
Cropley V.L., Fujita M., Innis R.B., Nathan P.J (2006). Molecular imaging of the dopaminergic system and its association with human cognition. Biol. Psychiatry, 59(10):898-907.

Fitzgerald D.A., Angstadt M., Jelsone L.M., Nathan P.J., Phan K.L. (2006). Beyond threat: Amygdala reactivity across multiple expressions of facial affect. Neuroimage, 30(4): 1441-8.
Phan KL., Fitzgerald D.A., Nathan P.J., Tancer ME. (2006). Association between amygdala hyperactivity to aversive faces and severity of social anxiety in generalized social anxiety disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 59(5): 424-9.

Ellis J.R., Ellis K.A., Harrison B.J., Bartholomeusz C.F., Erskine F.F., Wesnes K.W., Vitetta L., Nathan P.J. (2006). Muscarinic and Nicotinic Receptors Synergistically Modulate Working Memory and Attention in Humans. Int. J. Neuropsychopharmacol., 9(2):175-89.

Phan K.L., Fitzgerald D.A., Nathan P.J., Moore G.J., Uhde T.W., Tancer M.E. (2005). Prefrontal contributions to the cognitive suppression of negative affect. Biological Psychiatry, 57(3): 210-9.
Harrison B.J., Olver J., Norman T.R., Burrows G.D., Wesnes K., Nathan P.J. (2004). Selective effects of acute serotonin and catecholamine depletion on memory in healthy women. J. Psychopharmacol., 18(1): 32-40. 

Kemp A.H., Nathan P.J. (2004). Acute augmentation of serotonin suppresses cardiovascular responses to emotional stimuli. Int. J. Neuropsychopharmacology, 7(1): 65-70.

Ellis A., Nathan P.J. (2001). The pharmacology of human working memory (review). Int. J. Neuropsychopharmacology, 4(3): 299-313.

Nathan P.J. (1999).  The Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology of St John's Wort (hypericum perforatum L.)(Review). Molecular Psychiatry., 4: 333-338.