Dr. Philip Seeman

Dr. Seeman has made fundamental contributions to the understanding of drug actions in the brain. His research on "fluidization" of cell membrane lipids provided an explanation of the anaesthetic action of drugs of widely differing chemical structure, and was the basis for a current theory of tolerance to such drugs. In 1974 he devised a method for measuring the numbers and binding properties of dopamine receptors in different parts of the brain. This internationally acclaimed work has led to the identification of different types of dopamine receptors and their roles in the pathophysiology and treatment of schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease and other diseases of the nervous system.