Dr. Kennedy’s studies at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, a leading Canadian facility for research and clinical care where he has worked since 1991, are devoted to identifying genes involved in mental illness. He has contributed significant findings on gene variants in the dopamine and serotonin systems relating to brain and behavior disorders and to treatment response and has led studies of unstable DNA in mental illness. Dr. Kennedy and his colleagues apply molecular genetics technology to investigations of schizophrenia, with a particular emphasis on first-episode psychosis and refractory schizophrenia, and to childhood depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, eating disorders and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Current interests include the genetics of medication response and side effects and the genetics of neuroimaging.