Dr. Joshua Kantrowitz is a psychiatrist at the Nathan Kline Institute and at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He also serves as Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and is Director of the Lieber Research Clinic, New York State Psychiatric Institute.
The focus of his research career is investigating novel pharmacological and sensory-based treatments for core neurocognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia, particularly glutamate-based treatment approaches. His work has recently been recognized with the Young Investigator Travel Award by the International Congress of Schizophrenia Research (ICOSR) and;the Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS); and the Dr. Joseph E. and Lillian Pisetsky Young Investigator Award for Clinical Research in Serious Mental Illness. He has extensive experience conducting pharmacological biomarker studies in the capacity of Director of the Lieber Research Clinic, and served as a principal/co-investigator and first author of several NIMH-funded multicenter trials of glutamate based treatments. These include the first demonstrations the efficacy of high dose D-serine, a naturally occurring endogenous modulator of N-methyl-D-aspartate-type glutamate receptors (NMDAR) in both chronic and early (prodromal) schizophrenia. He is a co-investigator on ongoing NIMH sponsored Fast-Fail Trials in Psychotic Spectrum Disorders project which measures changes in glutamatergic neurophysiology using MRI. Additionally, under his own funding, he recently completed the first demonstration that NMDAR dysfunction may contribute to underlying neuroplasticity deficits and, second, that repeated D-serine administration may enhance neuroplasticity in schizophrenia.