Atsushi Kamiya, MD, PhD

Primary Academic Title

Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Centers and Institutes

• Molecular Psychiatry Program
• Schizophrenia Center

Additional Academic Titles

Professor of Neuroscience

Contact for Research Inquiries

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Meyer Building
Baltimore, MD 21287

Phone: (410) 502-0060
Fax: (410) 614-1792
akamiya1@jhmi.edu

Research Interests

Genetic and environmental risk factors for psychiatric disorders, brain development, stress, inflammation

Lab Website

The Atsushi Kamiya Lab - Lab Website

Research Summary

The goal of our research is to understand the molecular and circuit mechanisms underlying etiopathophysiologies of psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and depression. In particular, we investigate how genetic risk factors and environmental factors, such as adolescent cannabis use and psychosocial stress, affect stress-related biological signaling mechanisms, including immune and inflammatory processes, leading to impairment of brain development and brain function that regulates cognitive and mood-related behaviors.

We hope our research ultimately identifies new therapeutic targets and biological markers for early intervention of these devastating conditions

Selected Publications

• Hasegawa Y, Kim J, Ursini G, Jouroukhin Y, Zhu X, Miyahara Y, Xiong F, Madireddy S, Obayashi M, Lutz B, Sawa A, Brown SP, Pletnikov MV, and Kamiya A.: Microglial cannabinoid receptor type 1 mediates social memory deficits in mice produced by adolescent THC exposure and 16p11.2 duplication. Nature Communications (2023) 

• Peter, CJ., Saito, A., Hasegawa, Y., Tanaka, Y., Nagpal, M., Perez, G., Alway, E., Espeso-Gil, S., Fayyad, T., Ratner, C., Dincer, A., Gupta, A., Devi, L., Pappas, JG., Lalonde FM., Butman, JA., Han, JC., Akbarian, S., Kamiya, A.: In vivo epigenetic editing of Sema6a promoter reverses transcallosal dysconnectivity caused by C11orf46/Arl4ep risk gene, Nature Commun. (2019)

• Saito, A., Taniguchi, Y., Rannals, M., Merfeld, EB., Ballinger, MD., Koga, M., Ohtani, Y., Gurley, DA., Sedlak, TW., Cross, A., Moss, SJ., Brandon, NJ., Maher, BJ., Kamiya, A.: Early postnatal GABAA receptor modulation reverses deficits in neuronal maturation in a conditional neurodevelopmental mouse model of DISC1. Molecular Psychiatry 10; 1449-1459 (2016).

• Zhu X, Sakamoto S, Ishii C, Smith MD, Ito K, Obayashi M, Unger L, Hasegawa Y, Kurokawa S, Kishimoto T, Li H, Hatano S, Wang TH, Yoshikai Y, Kano S, Fukuda S, Sanada K, Calabresi PA, Kamiya A.: Dectin-1 signaling on colonic γδ T cells promotes psychosocial stress responses. Nature Immunology (2023)

• Zhu, X., Nedelcovych, M., Thomas, A.G., Hasegawa, Y., Moreno-Megui, A., Commer, W., Vohra, V., Saito, A., Perez, G., Wu, Y., Alt, J., Prchalova, E., Tenora, L., Majer, P., Rais, R., Rojas, C., Slusher, B.S., Kamiya, A.: JHU-083 Selectively Blocks Glutaminase Activity in Brain CD11b+ cells and Prevents Depression-associated Behaviors Induced by Chronic Social Defeat Stress. Neuropsychopharmacology (2019).

Additional Training

Shiga University Hospital, Toyosato Hospital, Toyosato, Japan, 2000, Residency; Shiga University of Medical Science, Shiga, Japan, 2002, Staff Psychiatrist; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, 2007, Psychiatry