Zul Merali
Professor
University of Ottawa/ Brain and Mind Research Institute
Canada
Biography
Zul Merali (PhD) is President/CEO and Scientific Director of the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research. He is also full professor in the faculties of Medicine (Departments of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Psychiatry) and Social Sciences (Psychology) at the University of Ottawa, as well as research professor at the Institute of Neuroscience at Carleton University. Dr. Merali's research endeavours, supported by grants from CIHR and NSERC, strive to characterize the body's response to stressful and appetitive events, and the relationship of stressors (including early-life trauma) to mood and anxiety disorders. Another focus of his research is also to determine how pharmacological interventions (pharmaceutical and nutriceutical) may attenuate stress-induced pathophysiology. In this vein, he and his colleagues have been attempting to isolate anti-anxiety compounds from a variety of rare plants. Dr. Merali's research investigations extend from the behavioural to the cellular and molecular levels, and involve experimental animals as well as human subjects. Dr. Merali has published over a hundred scientific papers, more than 20 book chapters and over 100 conference presentations.
Research Interest
Depression, mental health research, Stress and Neurochemistry