THAD & ALICE EURE DISTINGUISHED PROFESSORSHIP
John Gilmore, MD
Thad and Alice Eure Distinguished Professor
Vice Chair for Research and Scientific Affairs
Director, UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health
UNC Department of Psychiatry
Established in 1999, the Thad and Alice Eure professorship provides scholarly support funds for a distinguished faculty member in the UNC Department of Psychiatry. It was awarded in 2008 to John Gilmore, MD, a renowned clinician and researcher in the field of schizophrenia and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Dr. Gilmore, an accomplished psychiatrist and researcher for over 30 years, received his MD at UNC-Chapel Hill, then spent his internship year with the Department of Surgery at the Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia. He completed his psychiatric residency at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, then returned to UNC-Chapel Hill for a research fellowship within the Department of Psychiatry.
Dr. Gilmore’s research focuses on early childhood brain development and how it contributes to risk for schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. Current longitudinal studies include: 1) early brain development in children at risk for schizophrenia and bipolar illness, 2) a twin study to determine genetic and environmental contributions to early brain development, and 3) a study of structural brain development in normal children and its relationship to the development of attention, anxiety, and executive function. Dr. Gilmore is also co-PI of the NIMH Baby Connectome Study and of an NIMH T32 training grant for “Big Data” in Psychiatry.
Early Brain Development Study
The Eure Professorship continues to help support Dr. Gilmore and his team as they conduct the UNC Early Brain Development Study. Dr Gilmore pioneered the use of MRIs to systematically study brain, cognitive, and behavioral development in very young children at risk for psychiatric disorders. The study officially began in 2003, after a pilot grant from the Foundation of Hope provided the early evidence of the feasibility and significance of this approach. The study seeks to understand how early childhood brain development is altered in children at risk for schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders and to identify imaging biomarkers of risk that allows early identification and intervention to improve outcomes.
The study enrolled over 1,000 children before birth and follows children at birth and every 2 years with brain imaging and cognitive and behavioral assessments. Children in the study are now between the ages of 8 and 16 years, entering the age when psychiatric disorders start to emerge clinically.
The study is currently supported by 2 NIMH grants.
2021 Eure Professorship Highlights
In 2021, we’re thrilled to report the below research discoveries and scientific publications:
1. We unexpectedly discovered that small bleeds around the brain are very common in newborns, probably related to labor delivery. In this follow-up study, we found that children with these minor bleeds were developing normally at age 2 years, a reassuring finding.
Zamora C, Sams C, Cornea EA, Yuan Z, Smith JK, Gilmore JH. Subdural Hemorrhage in Asymptomatic Neonates: Neurodevelopmental Outcomes and MRI Findings at 2 Years. Radiology. 2021 Jan;298(1):173-179.
2. It is not known how genes contribute to brain structure in early childhood, especially. We found that in the first 2 years of life, a period of rapid growth and development, genes play a major role in how the brain develops, and indication that genes of risk for psychiatric illness likely influence early childhood brain development.
Xia K, Schmitt JE, Jha SC, Girault JB, Cornea E, Li G, Shen D, Styner M, Gilmore JH. Genetic Influences on Longitudinal Trajectories of Cortical Thickness and Surface Area during the First 2 Years of Life. Cereb Cortex. 2022 Jan 10;32(2):367-379.