Prof. Oliver Howes, BM BCh, MRCPsych, PhD, DM, FMedSci

Disclosure

Oliver Howes is Professor of Molecular Psychiatry at King’s and Imperial Colleges, London. His clinical work is as Consultant Psychiatrist at The Maudsley Hospital, where he runs a service for people with psychoses. He has a part time role as Vice President for translational neuropsychiatry at Lundbeck A/v.

His research interests centre on the causes and treatment of affective and psychotic disorders. His recent work has focussed on understanding the role of dopamine and neuroinflammation in the development of psychosis, the effects of antipsychotic drugs, & the causes of cognitive impairments. This work has been recognised through a number of awards including the Royal College of Psychiatrists Researcher of the Year Award (2017), Schizophrenia International Research Society Rising Star Award (2013), European Psychiatric Association Biological Psychiatry Prize (2012), the Royal Society of Medicine Psychiatry Prize (2010), and the British Association of Psychopharmacology Clinical Psychopharmacology Prize (2007). In 2019 Web of Science named him as one of the most influential researchers in the world based on high impact papers over the last decade. He was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2020. 

Other career highlights include working as a junior potato scrubber on a farm. During lockdown, STRAVA gave him an award as the runner most likely to run downhill in his neighbourhood! He spends his spare time trying to find the world’s best ice-cream. 

Selected references

The effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol on the dopamine system. Bloomfield MA, Ashok AH, Volkow ND, Howes OD. Nature. 2016 Nov 17;539(7629):369-377.

Dopamine synthesis capacity before the onset of psychosis: a prospective [18F]-DOPA imaging study. Howes OD, Bose SK, Turkheimer F, Valli I, Egerton A, Valmaggia LR, Murray RM, McGuire P. Am J Psychiatry. 2011 Dec;168(12):1311-7.

Microglial activity in people at ultra high risk of psychosis and in schizophrenia: an [11C]-PBR28 PET brain imaging study. Bloomfield PS, Selvaraj S, Veronese M, Rizzo G, Bertoldo A, Owen DR, Bloomfield MA, Bonoldi I, Kalk N, Turkheimer F, McGuire P, de Paola V, Howes OD. Am J Psychiatry. 2016 Jan;173(1):44-52.

Schizophrenia: an integrated sociodevelopmental-cognitive model. Howes OD, Murray RM.

Lancet. 2014 May 10;383(9929):1677-87.

Comparative effects of 18 antipsychotics on metabolic function in patients with schizophrenia, predictors of metabolic dysregulation, and association with psychopathology: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. Pillinger T, McCutcheon RA, Vano L, Mizuno Y, Arumuham A, Hindley G, Beck K, Natesan S, Efthimiou O, Cipriani A, Howes OD. Lancet Psychiatry. 2020 Jan;7(1):64-77.

Synaptic density marker SV2A is reduced in schizophrenia patients and unaffected by antipsychotics in rats. Onwordi EC, Halff EF, Whitehurst T, Mansur A, Cotel MC, Wells L, Creeney H, Bonsall D, Rogdaki M, Shatalina E, Reis Marques T, Rabiner EA, Gunn RN, Natesan S, Vernon AC, Howes OD. Nature Commun. 2020 Jan 14;11(1):246.