Sawa, Akira, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor Director, Schizophrenia Center Director, Conte Center Director, Program in Molecular Psychiatry Main Office Address Meyer 3-166A The Johns Hopkins Hospital 600 North Wolfe St. Baltimore, MD 21287 Phone: 410-955-4726 Fax: 410-614-1792 E-mail: asawa1@jhmi.edu Administrative Assistant Yukiko Lema E-mail: ylema1@jhmi.edu Phone: 410-614-5238

Education

Professional Interests

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: pathogenesis at the molecular level

• Schizophrenia Center
• Program in Molecular Psychiatry 

Hopkins BrainWise Newsletter articles about Dr. Sawa's work:

• Schizophrenia: A Sea Change? (Winter 2012)
• Schizophrenia: War to Save Synapses (Fall 2010)
• Toehold on Schizophrenia (Winter 2006)
• Late Blooming Molecule Could Be Key Target ( Spring-Summer 2005)

Selected Publications

Coughlin JM, Ishizuka K, Kano SI, Edwards JA, Seifuddin FT, Shimano MA, Daley EL, Zandi PP, Leweke FM, Cascella NG, Pomper MG, Yolken RH, Sawa A. Marked reduction of soluble superoxide dismutase-1 (SOD1) in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with recent-onset schizophrenia. Mol Psychiatry, 2012 (in press).Link

Kondo M, Sawa A. Anti-/Propsychotic drug signaling via heteromeric GPCRs--a balancing act? Cell, 147:964-965 (2011). Link

Ishizuka K, Kamiya A, Oh EC, Kanki H, Seshadri S, Robinson JF, Murdoch H, Dunlop AJ, Kubo K, Furukori K, Huang B, Zeledon M, Hayashi-Takagi A, Okano H, Nakajima K, Houslay MD, Katsanis N, Sawa A. DISC1-dependent switch from progenitor proliferation to migration in the developing cortex. Nature, 473:92-96 (2011) Link

Brandon NJ, Sawa A. Linking neurodevelopmental and synaptic theories via DISC1. Nature Rev Neurosci, 12:707-722 (2011) Link

Tajinda K, Ishizuka K, Colantuoni C, Morita M, Winicki J, Le C, Lin S, Schretlen D, Sawa A, Cascella, NG. Neuronal biomarkers from patients with mental illnesses: a novel method through nasal biopsy combined with laser-captured microdissection. Mol. Psychiatry. 15:231-232 (2010) Link

Hayashi-Takagi A, Takaki M, Graziane N, Seshadri S, Murdoch H, Dunlop AJ, Makiko Y, Seshadri AJ, Ishizuka K, Srivastava DP, Xie Z, Baraban JM, Houslay MD, Tomoda T, Brandon NJ, Kamiya A, Yan Z, Penzes P, Sawa A.  Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia-1 (DISC1) regulates spines of the glutamate synapse via Rac1. Nature Neurosci., 13:327-332 (2010) Link