James Kennedy

James Kennedy, MD is Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is a member of the Collaborative Program in Neuroscience, and the Institute of Medical Science at the University. Dr. Kennedy is also Director of the Molecular Brain Science Department, Section Head of the Psychiatric Neurogenetics lab and Head of the Tanenbaum Centre for Pharmacogenetics at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Dr. Kennedy sits on several clinical neuroscience-related Advisory Boards including the Scientific Council of the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (NARSAD), the OPTiMiSE schizophrenia trial; International Society of Psychiatric Genetics (ISPG), 2014-2016 Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) Program Committee, Assurex Healthcare Inc. Scientific Advisory Board and Organizing Committee for Pharmacogenetics in Psychiatry.

Over his 25 year career, Dr. Kennedy has published over 600 papers with 25,000 citations to date and is an active lecturer at numerous international conferences. He has mentored over 30 graduate students and more than 25 post-doctoral fellows. In 2013, Dr. Kennedy became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Research Synopsis

Dr. Kennedy has training in three major areas: neuroscience, clinical psychiatry, and molecular genetics. His main research interests over the past 25 years has been the identification of susceptibility genes for psychiatric disorders, and personalizing psychiatric treatment using molecular genetic technology.