Graduate Department of Psychological Clinical Science - Romina Mizrahi

Dr. Mizrahi is the Director of the Focus on Youth Psychosis Prevention (FYPP) clinic and research program at CAMH, and Head of the psychosis PET program in CAMH's Research Imaging Centre (CAMH-RIC) in the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute. Dr. Mizrahi is an Associate Professor in Psychiatry at the University of Toronto (U of T), Clinician-Scientist in the RIC, a full Member of the Institute of Medical Science (IMS) at U of T and a full Graduate Faculty Member in the Pharmacology & Toxicology Department at U of T. She received her M.D. (1998) from the University of Buenos Aires and PhD (2007) from IMS.   

Dr. Mizrahi’s research focuses on developing a better understanding of how the brain functions in-vivo. Specifically, it focuses on the pathophysiology of the early course of schizophrenia and its treatment and those at high risk of developing psychosis. In pursuit of this goal, her lab uses phenomenology, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET). Dr. Mizrahi's ultimate goal is to prevent schizophrenia in those at risk.

She has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Ontario Mental Health Foundation (OMHF) to study dopamine using positron emission tomography (PET) in early psychosis and in those at risk for the disease. She also leads a new line of research to use a new F-18 radioligand to image neuroinflammation in-vivo and was in charge of translating this radioligand from the bench to the bedside at CAMH. Using this new radioligand, her lab is currently investigating neuroinflammation in schizophrenia and clinical high risk for psychosis. Dr. Mizrahi has been awarded a$1.6-million grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH, US) to follow up on her neuroinflammation work. Dr. Mizrahi is also conducting first human imaging studies of endocannabinoid metabolism in schizophrenia and clinical high risk for psychosis alongside looking into imaging NOP receptor expression in schizophrenia and investigating dopamine release following a mental challenge task in schizophrenia and clinical high risk for psychosis. This work has received initial funding from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (US) and NIMH (US).