Prof Zoltán Sarnyai is a medically-trained PhD neuroscientist with an active research program in the neurobiological mechanisms of stress and psychiatric disorders, including drug addiction, schizophrenia and depression.  After a postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School he held an independent research position at the Rockefeller University, supported by two prestigious fellowships. Zoltán was involved in setting up a behavioural neuroscience focussed biotech company and later directed its research effort to develop new animal models for psychiatric disorders. Prior to establishing the Psychiatric Neuroscience Laboratory at JCU in 2012 he was a University Lecturer in Pharmacology and Fellow of Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge.

Zoltán has skills and experience in preclinical and clinical stress research as well as in behavioural neuroscience and animal modelling of complex human neuropsychiatric disorders. Zoltán is  Head of the Laboratory of Psychiatric Neuroscience within the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine and the Convenor of the Community of NeuroScientists at JCU (CNS@JCU), a network of academics, doctors and other health professionals interested in broadly defined neuroscience and brain research. Zoltán's particular focus is on determining how psychosocial environment shapes the brain through hormones, immune and metabolic factors during the course of the development of neuropsychiatric disorders. He applies basic neuroscience approaches to study disadvantaged and minority populations, including Indigenous Australians, as they are disproportionally affected by mental illness. Zoltán also has a strong interest in the emerging field of nutritional psychiatry and has a number of research projects on dietary factors and mental health.

To date, Zoltán has 130 journal articles and book chapters (h-index 44 [GS]; top 5 papers in the last 5 years have a relative citation ratio [RCR] of 11; and an NIH percentile of 97), and well over $6m in grant funding from USA, UK, EU and Australian funding bodies. He has supervised 5 HDR students to completion at JCU and  currently supervises 4 students at HDR level. He is Associate Editor for the journal Nutritional Neuroscience and for the Neuroenergetics, Nutrition and Brain Health Section of Frontiers of Neuroscience. Zoltan serves on the editorial board of Stress, Psychiatry International and the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Heath. He has been symposium organiser, invited speaker, discussant, moderator and panel member at international scientific conferences. Over the years Zoltán has served as consultant for pharmaceutics, biotechnology and venture capital firms and has been invited to review grant proposals worldwide. He was awarded the Curt P. Richter Prize by the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology for his work on neuropeptides and brain function and was a recipient of the prestigious Du Pont Warren Fellowship from Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a Young Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD). In 2019 Zoltan was appointed as the Lady Davis Visting Professor at the Laboratory of Psychobiology, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology for 6 months to study the role of energy metabolism in schizophrenia.

Teaching

• PP2101: Medical Physiology 1 (Level 2; TSV)
• PP2150: Introduction to Medical Pharmacology (Level 2; TSV)
• PP3251: Systemic Pathophysiology and Therapeutics (Level 3; TSV)
• PP3252: Neuropharmacology (Level 3; TSV)
• PP5251: Systemic Pathophysiology and Therapeutics (Level 5; TSV)

Interests

Research

• • Psychiatric neuroscience • Social and biological determinants of mental health • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and social & emotional well-being • Stress and allostatic load • Behavioural neuroscience • Psychopharmacology

Teaching

• • Medical pharmacology • Neuropharmacology • Drug discovery

Experience

• 2003 to 2011 - University Lecturer, University of Cambridge (Cambridge, UK)
• 2003 to 2011 - Fellow and Director of Studies in Medicine, Pembroke College (Cambridge, UK)
• 1999 to 2003 - Research Director and later Vice-President, PsychoGenics Inc. (Tarrytown, NY, USA)
• 1995 to 1999 - Research Associate, The Rockefeller University (New York, NY, USA)
• 1992 to 1995 - Research Fellow, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA, USA)
• 1987 to 1992 - Instructor and later Assistant Professor, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Medical University (Szeged, Hungary)

Research Disciplines

• Neurosciences (3209)

Socio-Economic Objectives

• Clinical health (2001)

Awards

• 2023 - Associate Editor - Mental Health; Hungarian Pediatrics
• 2019 - Lady Davis Visiting Professor, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
• 2016 to 2017 - Far North Queensland Hospital Foundation Research Grant Novel treatment to eliminate the high rate of psychosis in Far North Queensland Indigenous population: A preclinical proof-of-concept study CIA
• 2015 - Reperio Innovation Competition 1st Prize and AITHM People’s Choice Award
• 2014 to 2015 - Comparative Genome Centre Seed Grant, JCU; Food allergy and behaviour, CIA ($5,000)
• 2014 to 2015 - Publication Workshop Grant, JCU; Stress, Allostatic Load and Indigenous Health: From Cells to Community ($13,000)
• 2014 to 2015 - CBMDT/CBTID Seed Grant, JCU; Hookworm therapy for depression; CIB ($15,000)
• 2013 to 2014 - Faculty Grant, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Sciences, JCU; Stress response in Indigenous students ($18.352)
• 2013 to 2014 - Collaboration Across Boundaries, JCU; Microlagae omega-3 fatty acids: from carbon capture to cognition; ($6,750)
• 2009 to 2011 - Pathomechanisms and therapeutic potentials of neurodegenerative disorders, anxiety and depression. TÁMOP-4.2.2-08/1/2008-0002, Ministry of Education and Culture, Hungary – Co-Investigator; (312,082,000 HUF, ~ AU$2,017,500)
• 1995 to 2000 - NIDA Clinical Research Center Grant Polydrug abuse in women P50 DA04059-11 - Co-Investigator, responsible for the Preclinical Behavioral Endocrinology component; (US$5 million)
• 1996 to 1998 - NARSAD Young Investigator Award Grant; Neurobiology of chronic stress in rats: relevance to affective disorders and risk for substance abuse, sole CI (US$60,000)
• 1995 to 1996 - Arthur Vining Davis Clinical Scholarship The Rockefeller University, New York, NY,
• 1994 - CIBA Foundation Bursary CIBA Foundation
• 1993 to 1994 - Ethel DuPont-Warren Fellowship Grant, Dept. of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School (US$35,000)
• 1993 - C.P. Richter Prize International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology
• 1987 - István Apáthy Prize for Student Scientific Research, A. Szent-Gyorgyi Medical University, Szeged, Hungary

Fellowships

• 2003 to 2011 - Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, United Kingdom
• 1993 to 1994 - Ethul DuPont-Warren Fellowship Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Memberships

• 2020 - Editorial Board Member, Psychiatry International
• 2019 - Associate Editor, Neuroenergetics, Nutrition and Brain Health (specialty section of Frontiers in Neuroscience and Frontiers in Nutrition)
• 2018 - Grant Review Panel Member (Neuroscience), National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia
• 2018 - Editorial Board Member, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Heath
• 2018 - Scientific Advisory Committee; Rebecca L Cooper Medical Research Foundation
• 2018 - Associate Editor, Nutritional Neuroscience
• 2017 - Grant Review Panel Member (Neuroscience), National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia
• 2016 - International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research (ISNPR), Executive Committee
• 2016 - International Behavioral Neuroscience Society; Member of the Awards and Nominations Committee
• 2016 - Guest Editor, Special Issue on nutritional psychiatry for the journal Nutritional Neuroscience
• 2016 - Grant Review Panel Member (Neuroscience), National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia
• 2016 - Journal of Metabolic Therapeutics (inaugural editorial board)
• 2015 - Biological Psychiatry Australia (BPA), Executive Committee
• 2015 - Editorial Board; Stress (Taylor & Francis)
• 2015 - Grant Review Panel Member (Neuroscience), National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia
• 2006 to 2010 - Scientific Advisory Board; SIDMAP, LLC, Los Angeles, CA, USA (biotechnology)
• 1997 to 1999 - Scientific Adivsory Board; Athene Ventures, New York, NY, USA (biotechnology venture capital)

Other

• 2022 - Chief Scientific Adviser, Tropical Brain and Mind Foundation
• 2017 - Chair, Symposium on Ketogenic Diet in Psychiatry; International Conference on Nutritional Psychiatry, Bethesda, MD, USA
• 2017 - Secretary, Biological Psychiatry Australia
• 2017 - Chair, Symposium on Allostatic Load in Psychiatry; International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology Annual Meeting, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2017 - Invited Speaker RANZCP 6TH ANNUAL NEUROPSYCHIATRY AND BEHAVIOURAL NEUROLOGY CONFERENCE 2017
• 2016 - Invited to contribute in the popular science magazin AUSTRALASIAN SCIENCE with an article on ketogenic diet in schizophrenia (May 2016 issue http://www.australasianscience.com.au/article/issue-may-2016/a%E2%80%88diet-calms-schizophrenic-mind.html)
• 2015 - Invited Plenary Lecture, Hungarian Psychiatric Association Meeting
• 2013 - Invited Symposium Lecture, Biological Psychiatry Australia Annual Meeting
• 2013 - Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior; Special Issue Editor: The role of oxytocin in positive affect and drug-related reward
• 2011 - Invited lecture, Psychiatry Congress Berlin (Congress of the German Association for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy; DGPPN)
• 2003 - Rudolf Magnus Institute, Neuroscience Summer School, Utrecht, NL
• 2002 - Inivted Lecture, Fourth World Congress on Stress, Stress and Drug Addiction symposium, Edinburgh, UK
• 2002 - Invited Lecture, Fifth IUPHAR Satellite Conference on Serotonin, Acapulco, Mexico
• 1993 - Curt P. Richter Award Lecture, XXIV. Congress of the Int. Soc. of Psychoneuroendocrinology, Taormina, Italy

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

• Siew R, Bowe S, Turner A, Sarnyai Z, Nilsson C, Shaw J, Magliano D and Torres S (2023) The role of combined modifiable lifestyle behaviors in the longitudinal association between stressful life events and allostatic load in Australian adults. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 149 (March).
• Van den Berghe F, Paris M, Sarnyai Z, Ganswindt A and Paris D (2023) Periovulatory changes in behavior and fecal hormone metabolite concentrations but not vaginal cytology or vaginoscopy are indicative for the fertile period in female African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus). Theriogenology Wild, 2.
• Vos G, Trinh K, Sarnyai Z and Rahimi Azghadi M (2023) Generalizable machine learning for stress monitoring from wearable devices: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 173.
• Finlay S, Rudd D, McDermott B and Sarnyai Z (2022) Allostatic load and systemic comorbidities in psychiatric disorders. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 140.
• Finlay S, Roth C, Zimsen T, Bridson T, Sarnyai Z and McDermott B (2022) Adverse childhood experiences and allostatic load: A systematic review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 136.
• Henkel N, Wu X, O'Donovan S, Devine E, Jiron J, Rowland L, Sarnyai Z, Ramsey A, Wen Z, Hahn M and McCullumsmith R (2022) Schizophrenia: a disorder of broken brain bioenergetics. Molecular Psychiatry, 27. pp. 2393-2404
• Marie R, Journault A, Cernik R, Welch P, Lupien S, McDermott B, Moxon J and Sarnyai Z (2022) A Cross-Sectional Study Investigating Canadian and Australian Adolescents' Perceived Experiences of COVID-19: Gender Differences and Mental Health Implications. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19 (7).
• O'Shaughnessy D, Sarnyai Z, Quirk F and Rodd R (2022) Traditional Amazonian medicine in addiction treatment: Qualitative results. SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, 2.
• Bartlett R, Sarnyai Z, Momartin S, Ooi L, Schwab S and Matosin N (2021) Understanding the pathology of psychiatric disorders in refugees. Psychiatry Research, 296.
• O'Shaughnessy D, Berlowitz I, Rodd R, Sarnyai Z and Quirk F (2021) Within-treatment changes in a novel addiction treatment program using traditional Amazonian medicine. Therapeutic Advances In Psychopharmacology, 11. pp. 1-18
• Phillips R, Kraeuter A, McDermott B, Lupien S and Sarnyai Z (2021) Human nail cortisol as a retrospective biomarker of chronic stress: a systematic review. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 123.
• Berger M, Lavoie S, McGorry P, Nelson B, Markulev C, Yuen H, Schaefer M, Sarnyai Z and Amminger G (2020) Relationship between allostatic load and clinical outcomes in youth at ultra-high risk for psychosis in the NEURAPRO study. Schizophrenia Research, 226. pp. 38-43

More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 110+ research outputs authored by Prof Zoltan Sarnyai from 1994 onwards.

Current and recent Research Funding to JCU is shown by funding source and project.

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

• Overcoming Adversity: A Biopsychosocial Perspective of Young Adulthood following Adverse Childhood Experiences (PhD , Primary Advisor)
• Pharmacogenomic Profiling of Mental Health Patients in the Philippine National Center for Mental Health (PhD , Primary Advisor)
• The impact of stress and trauma on refugee mental health: Building resilience through understanding stress neurobiology of refugees (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
• Psychiatric and Metabolic Effects of ketogenic Therapy in Psychotic Disorders (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
• Nutritional Modification of Gestational Neurodevelopmental Programming: The Impact on Offspring Mental Health Related Behaviours in a Translational Mouse Model (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)
• Measuring Allostatic Load - Biomarkers as Predictive Tools in Serious Mental Illness (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)

Completed

• What is the difference between Indigenous Australian and non-Indigenous Australian undergraduate students’ alcohol use, and alcohol-related harms at one regional Australian university? (2018, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• A conservation management toolkit: developing assisted breeding and behavioural management tools for the African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) (2018, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Ketogenic diet as a potential novel treatment for schizophrenia in translational animal models (2019, PhD , Primary Advisor)
• Stress, Allostatic Load and Health (2022, PhD , Primary Advisor)
• Turning stress into success: changing beliefs about stress using neuroscience-informed stress education during adolescence (2022, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Biological endophenotypes of prodromal psychosis and depression (2018, PhD , Primary Advisor)
• Machine Learning for Stress Measurement using Wearable Sensor Biomarkers (2023, Masters , Secondary Advisor)

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.