Prof. Dr. Markus Schwarz

Research focus: Functional relationship between the immune system and the two main metabolism pathways of tryptophan (serotonin and kynurenine) in psychiatric disorders, immunological and immunogenetic investigations to identify a possible subgroup of schizophrenia and depression with immune-related pathogenesis, basic neuroimmune research on the crosstalk between neurotransmitter and cytokine system in vitro, therapeutic drug monitoring: Influence of co-medication and genetic predisposition on therapeutic blood levels of psychotropic drugs

Key words: Behavioral neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, molecular neurobiology

Selected publications:

Müller N and Schwarz MJ. (2007) The Immune-mediated Alteration of Serotonin and Glutamate: Towards an Integrated View of Depression. Mol. Psychiatry 12(11): 988-1000.

Neumeister A, Hu XZ, Luckenbaugh DA, Schwarz M, Nugent AC, Bonne O, Herscovitch P, Goldman D, Drevets WC and Charney DS. (2006) Differential effects of 5-HTTLPR genotypes on the behavioral and neural responses to tryptophan depletion in patients with major depression and controls. Arch Gen Psychiatry 63 (9): 978-86.

Schwarz MJ, Kronig H, Riedel M, Dehning S, Douhet A, Spellmann I, Ackenheil M, Moller HJ and Muller N. (2006) IL-2 and IL-4 polymorphisms as candidate genes in schizophrenia. Eur. Arch. Psychiatry Clin. Neurosci. 256: 72-76.

Schaefer M, Horn M, Schmidt F, Schmid-Wendtner MH, Volkenandt M, Ackenheil M, Mueller N and Schwarz MJ. (2004) Correlation between sICAM-1 and depressive symptoms during adjuvant treatment of melanoma with interferon-alpha. Brain Behav. Immun. 18: 555-562.

Schwarz MJ, Offenbaecher M, Neumeister A, Ewert T, Willeit M, Praschak-Rieder N, Zach J, Zacherl M, Lossau K, Weisser R, Stucki G and Ackenheil M. (2002) Evidence for an altered tryptophan metabolism in fibromyalgia. Neurobiol. Dis. 11: 434-442.