Dr. Grace has been involved in translational research related to the dopamine system and schizophrenia for over 30 years. His early work pioneered the identification and characterization of dopamine-containing neurons, and was the first to provide a means to quantify their activity state and pattern, now the standard means used in the scientific literature. His most recent work has used the methylazoxymethanol (MAM) developmental model of schizophrenia, which was developed in his lab. Using this model, he found that the hyperdopaminergic state present in schizophrenia appears to be a direct result of overdrive of the dopamine system by the hippocampus, secondary to parvalbumin interneuron loss. His lab has now advanced novel GABAergic drugs that may be effective in the treatment of schizophrenia, and has come up with a potential means to prevent the transition to psychosis in susceptible individuals.

Dr. Grace joined the University of Pittsburgh in 1985 and was named Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience in 2010.