Professor Darryl Eyles
d.eyles@uq.edu.au
Our research
The Eyles lab investigates the developmental origins of schizophrenia and autism, with a focus on how prenatal factors shape brain development and disease risk. The team have successfully:
- Identified low maternal vitamin D during pregnancy as a risk factor for schizophrenia and autism
- Demonstrated that vitamin D supplementation can prevent key behavioural and biological abnormalities in preclinical models of schizophrenia, highlighting
- Shown that major prenatal risk factors converge to disrupt dopamine neuron development, affecting neuronal differentiation, positioning and connectivity.
- Identified molecular pathways linking maternal vitamin D deficiency to increased testosterone in the developing brain, providing insight into the higher prevalence of autism in males.
To investigate the mechanisms underlying schizophrenia, the group developed a preclinical model that reproduces early dopamine dysfunction and the progressive dopamine abnormalities that emerge during adolescence. This model is used to study neural circuit dysfunction, midbrain neuroinflammation, interactions with stress and psychoactive compounds, and strategies to prevent disease onset.
Recently, the Eyles Group has pivoted to intranasal delivery of antipsychotic medications. They've established preclinical evidence that intransal administration of clozapine produces both acute and chronic antipsychotic effects, without the associated metabolic side effects of oral treatment, including diabetes. These outcomes were achieved using just 3.5% of the equivalent oral dose. The team is now examining whether next-generation cholinergic antipsychotics can be delivered using the same approach.
Latest news
- QBI's Professor Eyles and his team have developed a a novel intranasal formulation of the antipsychotic drug, clozapine, that may revolutionise the treatment of schizophrenia.
- A University of Queensland (UQ) research team led by Professor Darryl Eyles has developed a novel intranasal formulation of clozapine that could transform the treatment of schizophrenia.
- Svetlina Vasileva, a PhD student in the Eyles lab, has led a study to explore associations between the composition of the gut microbiome, schizophrenia and its treatment.
- Researchers from the Queensland Brain Institute have secured more than $3.2million in National Health and Medical Research Council Ideas Grants.
- A deficiency in vitamin D on the mother’s side could explain why autism spectrum disorder is three times more common in boys.
- QBI researcher Anastasia Brandon's research into schizophrenia is up for nomination at the 2020 Queensland Women in STEM Prize.