QCMHR’s Developmental Neurobiology laboratory explore the risk factors that are linked to schizophrenia, particularly nongenetic factors that are potentially modifiable. The team is examining the impact of low vitamin D (the sunshine hormone) during early brain development. QCMHR is Queensland’s premier mental health research facility. Its function is to reduce the level of disability associated with mental illness through research which leads to more effective mental health services and interventions, the identification and reduction of risk factors, and the development of researchers in the field of mental health. QCMHR is based within West Moreton Hospital and Health Service, but it also has close links with the Queensland Brain Institute, the School of Public Health and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Queensland, the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, and Brisbane Diamantina Health Partners.

Website

https://qcmhr.org/

Organisation type

• Research Hospital
• Queensland Government - Agency
• University Research Centre

Number of research staff

Up to 20 research staff

Address

Level 5, Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072

Strengths and capabilities

• Conducting mental health clinical trials
• Mental health policy advice and service evaluation
• Collaborative research in early psychosis
• Epidemiology of mental and substance use disorders
• Vocational rehabilitation for people with mental illness
• Non genetic risk factors of mental illness
• Animal models in mental health research
• Identifying susceptibility genes for schizophrenia
• Understanding brain development in severe mental illnesses
• Training and mentoring mental health researchers

Facilities and major equipment

• Developmental neurobiology laboratory
• Human genetics laboratory
• Biological sample storage units

Lead researchers

Professor Darryl Eyles—Established the biological plausibility of various epidemiological risk factors for schizophrenia.

Key science sectors

More information about the sectors this centre is involved in:

• Health and medical
• Social sciences