ASD Researchers at UNC

Director, UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health

Dr. John Gilmore is the Thad and Alice Eure Distinguished Professor and vice chair for Research and Scientific Affairs in the Department of Psychiatry at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Dr. Gilmore started the Schizophrenia Treatment and Evaluation Program (STEP) in 1992.  He also is a founder and the director of the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health and is active in the care of patients with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.  Dr. Gilmore’s research focuses on brain development and risk for schizophrenia, using magnetic resonance imaging to study early brain development in normal and high-risk children, as well as in twins.

Dr. Gilmore’s research focuses on pre-and early postnatal brain development and how it contributes to risk for schizophrenia. Dr. Gilmore and colleagues have developed MR imaging and image analysis methodologies to study very early human brain in children at high risk for schizophrenia. They also study normal brain development from birth to age 6, as little is known about how the normal brain develops in this time period of risk for schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders. They apply structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging to study white matter development, and resting state fMRI to study functional network development. Current longitudinal studies include 1) early brain development in children at risk for schizophrenia and bipolar illness, 2) a twin study to determine genetic and environmental contributions to early brain development, and 3) a study of structural brain development in normal children and its relationship to cognitive development.