Robert Innis, M.D., Ph.D.

Research Topics

Working in close collaboration with the radiochemistry laboratory of Dr. Victor Pike, my laboratory uses in vivo imaging to evaluate novel positron emission tomography (PET) radioligands, first in animals, then in healthy human participants, and finally in patients. The crux of our work is to develop novel and truly useful radioligands with broad scientific utility. Towards this end, we have developed novel radioligands for more than 15 targets that are now used at centers throughout the world; these novel ligands are either measurably better than ligands previously in use or, often, are the first to successfully image a particular target. Targets include: translocator protein (TSPO), cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1), COX-2, phosphodiesterase-4B (PDE4B), PDE4D, metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 (mGluR1), mGluR5, cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1), serotonin 1A receptor (5-HT1A), the nociceptin-orphanin peptide (NOP) receptor, OGlcNAcase (an enzyme involved in tau protein clearance from brain), and GluN2B, among others. My laboratory has multidisciplinary expertise in pharmacology, animal experimentation, clinical neuroscience, digital image analysis, and human evaluation of investigational radiopharmaceuticals. In addition to traditional receptor targets, we use radiolabeled probes for in vivo imaging of neuroinflammation and intracellular signal transduction.

Currently, our active areas of research include: 1) studying neuroinflammation, which has been implicated in the pathophysiology of several mental disorders, with a particular focus on the COX system as well as TSPO; 2) investigating PDE4B—and, by extension, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) signaling—with our newly developed radioligand to determine whether it is downregulated in depression; 3) developing radioligands to localize and quantify transfected genes activated by exogenously administered drugs in two systems: Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDs) and Pharmacologically Selective Actuator Molecules (PSAMs); and 4) spearheading efforts to establish an archive to meaningfully share and combine primary PET data (the OpenNeuroPET Archive ). A major goal of the lab is to use newly developed radioligands to facilitate clinical trials of novel therapeutics, and several such trials are currently ongoing.