Kirk Frey, M.D., Ph.D.
Research Professor, MBNI
David E. Kuhl Collegiate Professor of Radiology
Professor, Department of Neurology

1034 MBNI Building
205 Zina Pitcher PL
Ann Arbor , MI 48109-5720

kfrey@umich.edu

(734)936-5387

Current Research Interests:

Our laboratory is interested in general aspects of synaptic neurochemical markers and in neuroimaging. Our goals are ultimately to provide direct imaging measures of the effects of diseases and therapies in the human brain, thus, advancing our understanding of neurologic and psychiatric illness and permitting the development of better therapies. We are actively pursuing the development and characterization of markers specific to each of two cell types involved in disorders of memory and cognition (cholinergic neurons) or in psychosis and movement disorders (dopaminergic neurons). We are developing and applying new, non-invasive methods for imaging of receptors and other markers in the human brain based on positron emission tomography (PET). The possibility of drug-induced changes in receptor numbers may be investigated in the human brain at therapeutically relevant drug doses. This latter information may help identify mechanisms underlying drug intolerance.

Selected Publications:

Zubieta, J.K., Huguelet, P., Ohl, L.E., Koeppe, R.A., Kilbourn, M.R., Carr, J.M., Giordani, B.J., Frey, K.A.: High vesicular monoamine transporter binding in asymptomatic bipolar I disorder: sex differences and cognitive correlates. American Journal of Psychiatry. 157:1619-28, 2000

Cowell, R.M., Kantor, L., Hewlett, G.H., Frey, K.A.,Taylor, S.F., Koeppe, R.A., Tandon, R., Zubieta, J.K., Frey, K.A.: In vivo measurement of the vesicular monoamine transporter in schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology. 23:667-75, 2000

Zubieta, J.K., Taylor, S.F., Huguelet, P., Koeppe, R.A., Kilbourn, M.R., Frey, K.A.: Vesicular monoamine transporter concentrations in bipolar disorder type I, schizophrenia, and healthy subjects. Biological Psychiatry. 49:110-6, 2001

Frey, K.A.: The neurochemistry of therapeutics: levodopa pharmacodynamics in Parkinson’s disease. Annals of Neurology. 49:285-7, 2001