Research Project
Dr
Adam Walker
Current Appointments
Research Fellow, Group Leader - Laboratory of Immunopsychiatry
Senior Researcher, UNSW, School of Psychiatry
Key Research Areas
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The Laboratory of ImmunoPsychiatry, led by Dr Adam Walker, investigates the role of the immune system and inflammation in symptoms of psychiatric illness. We investigate the mechanisms responsible for inflammation-associated psychiatric disorders such as depression and schizophrenia, neurodevelopmental disorders such as Tourette’s Syndrome and Autism, and when symptoms of depression and cognitive impairment occur in patients with chronic inflammatory illness such as cancer (known as ‘chemobrain’). The Laboratory of ImmunoPsychiatry is dedicated to identifying potential cheap available drugs that can be repurposed to prevent and treat psychiatric illness and to identify new biological targets for novel drug design.
Dr Adam Walker completed his PhD at the University of Newcastle in 2011 and completed successful postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He returned to Australia in 2015 and joined Monash University as a National Breast Cancer Foundation research fellow, investigating the mechanisms underlying cognitive and psychiatric side-effects of cancer and its treatment. Now at NeuRA, Adam’s research focuses on mechanisms of inflammation-induced depression, schizophrenia and cancer-associated cognitive impairment. He has pioneered discovery of available drugs that may be repurposed to prevent treat inflammation-induced depression (ketamine, leucine) and cancer-associated cognitive impairment (aspirin).
Publications
2025, 01 Apr
Perturbations in the neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction and renin angiotensin system pathways are associated with cancer-related cognitive impairment
View full journal-article on https://app.dimensions.ai/details/publication/pub.1186240974
2025, 01 Feb
Blood IL-1α and IL-6 predict specific breast cancer-induced increases in hippocampal pro-inflammatory cytokines in mice
View full journal-article on https://app.dimensions.ai/details/publication/pub.1183358053
2025, 01 Jan
Divergent changes in complement pathway gene expression in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: Links to inflammation and neurogenesis in the subependymal zone
View full journal-article on https://app.dimensions.ai/details/publication/pub.1182905643
2024, 31 Dec
How do we get from bedside to bench and back again in cancer survivorship?: The case for integrating preclinical studies
View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1080/28352610.2024.2402235
2024, 23 Dec
The Association Between In Utero Exposure to Painkillers and Trajectories of Hyperactivity and Emotional Problems in Children with Autism Compared with Neurotypical Peers
View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.3390/children11121558
2024, 01 Dec
The search for gastrointestinal inflammation in autism: a systematic review and meta-analysis of non-invasive gastrointestinal markers
View full journal-article on https://app.dimensions.ai/details/publication/pub.1168010232
2024, 01 Aug
The relationship between hair cortisol concentration and autism diagnosis
View full journal-article on https://app.dimensions.ai/details/publication/pub.1172213712
2024, 12 Jan
Immp2l Enhances the Structure and Function of Mitochondrial Gpd2 Dehydrogenase
View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25020990
2023, 07 Dec
IMMP2L Peptidase Enhances the Structure and Function of Mitochondrial GPD2 Dehydrogenase.
View full preprint on https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202312.0505.v1
2023, 27 Nov
Type of anesthesia for cancer resection surgery: No differential impact on cancer recurrence in mouse models of breast cancer
View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0293905
Adam's research projects and related news
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