Mark Niciu

Mark Niciu is a Psychiatrist in Iowa City, Iowa. Dr. Niciu has been practicing medicine for over 14 years and is highly rated in 2 conditions, according to our data. His top areas of expertise are Major Depression, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder OCD. He is licensed to treat patients in Iowa.

The Niciu Lab is broadly interested in the pathophysiology and experimental therapeutics of major mood disorders, particularly glutamate and subanesthetic-dose ketamine in treatment-resistant major depression. Another major aim is the identification, replication and dissemination of antidepressant response biomarkers. As an example, our group and others have observed that treatment-resistant depressed subjects with a family history of an alcohol use disorder in a first-degree relative have a greater and more sustained antidepressant response to ketamine. We are currently studying potential alcohol-sensitive multimodal, e.g. psychological, neurophysiological and neuroimaging, biomarkers to predict antidepressant response with greater sensitivity and specificity than family history alone. On the translational front, we use human-induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-based models, i.e. cortical-like spheroids, to study genetic, molecular and cellular mechanisms of disease and pharmacological response to racemic ketamine, bioactive ketamine metabolites and other compounds in the future.

Research areas

• Cellular and molecular neuroscience
• Clinical neuroscience
• Ion channels
• Neurotransmitters
• Receptors
• Gene regulation
• Addiction
• Psychiatric disorders
• Frontal cortex
• Stress
• Neuroimaging
• Stem cells
• Cell culturing
• Pharmaco-MRI

Companies

• Assistant Professor University of Iowa Health Care (2018)
• Clinical Fellow National Institute of Mental Health (2012 — 2018)
• Psychiatry Resident/Neuroscience Research Training Program Yale University School of Medicine (2008 — 2012)
• M.D., Ph.D. Student (Medical Scientist Training Program) University of Connecticut Health Center (2000 — 2008)
• Research Assistant Albert Einstein Medical Center (1999 — 2000)
• Research Intern American Museum of Natural History (1999 — 1999)
• Research Assistant Fordham University (1998 — 1998)

Education

• M.D., Ph.D. The University of Connecticut Health Center (2000 — 2008)
• B.S. Manhattan College (1995 — 1999)