Dr. Anna Forsyth from the School of Pharmacy is one of the recipients of the MBIE Whitinga Fellowship, valued at $320,000. These fellowships are intended to support up-and-coming researchers to rise and establish a career in their chosen field of research. Researchers from any field were eligible to apply: from 95 applications submitted from the University of Auckland only 7 were successful. This fellowship will allow Anna to establish herself as a pharmaco-EEG/fMRI researcher in NZ and to aid the establishment of this country as a leading centre for clinical trials using psychedelic drugs for mental health indications.
Anna will be developing neuroimaging biomarkers of drug action for mental health medicines. The psychological and economic burden caused by mental health conditions in New Zealand (NZ) is increasing, and current treatments often do not work or are not well tolerated by many patients. Emerging clinical trial evidence shows that a class of drugs; serotonergic 2A receptor agonists, have the potential to be used as medicines for mental health conditions in previously treatment-resistant patients. The success of these clinical trials would be aided by the identification of biomarkers using non-invasive methods, such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which predict treatment response and track outcomes. This research will involve determining several biomarkers of the action of a serotonergic 2A receptor agonist for use in future trials in patient populations. Ultimately this will provide NZ patients with a wider variety of effective medicines to treat mental health conditions, improving their quality of life and reducing the economic burden this group of diseases has on our country.
Contact email: a.forsyth@auckland.ac.nz
