Feb. 28, 2000 Research by a prominent neuroscientist at UIC is
providing new clues to the molecular origins of schizophrenia, a
devastating mental illness that afflicts nearly 2.5 million
Americans. Erminio Costa, a member of the National Academy of
Sciences and scientific director of UIC's Psychiatric Institute,
is studying a chemical found in the brain called reelin. Reelin
plays a role in correctly positioning and aligning neurons in
the developing brain. It is also present in certain areas of the
adult brain, including the cerebral cortex, the region
responsible for higher mental functions like language and
problem solving. In a postmortem study of the brains of
schizophrenics, obtained from brain banks, Costa and his
colleagues found that the level of reelin was half that in
normal human brains. To confirm that finding, the UIC scientists
conducted a blind study of 60 brains taken postmortem from
individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, unipolar depression or
bipolar disorder with psychosis, and individ