How Genetics is Helping Us Understand Brain Disorders

In this talk, Professor Martin Kennedy, Department of Pathology and Biomedical Science at the University of Otago Christchurch campus, discusses how our genes interact with the medicines we take and the ways in which our genes determine the way our bodies break down medicines. He’ll also explain why they might cause us to have bad reactions when taking them and provide an opportunity for questions.

Professor Martin Kennedy's main research interests are psychiatric genetics, pharmacogenomics – the study of how genes affect a person’s response to drugs, and the genetics of complex disease. His current research largely focuses on pharmacogenomics, which aims to understand how drugs and genes interact with the goal of improving drug treatments and reducing adverse drug reactions.