Erminio Costa Explained

Erminio "Mimo" Costa (March 9, 1924 – November 28, 2009) was an Italian-American neuroscientist.^[3] His research interests covered brain serotonergic activity in health and disease, benzodiazepine-GABA interactions,^[4] benzodiazepine action at GABAA receptors, neurophysiological role of neurosteroids,^[5] and GABAergic dysfunction and changes in the expression of reelin and GAD67 in schizophrenia.^[6] He published more than 1,000 articles.^[7] The June 2011 issue of the journal Neuropharmacology was dedicated to him.^[8]

Career

• July 1947 - M.D. 110/110 cum laude, University of Cagliari, Italy
• 1950-1960 - Thudichum Psychiatric Research Laboratory, Galesburg Research Hospital, Galesburg, Illinois
• 1960-1965 - Deputy Chief, Laboratory of Chemical Pharmacology at NHLI - NIH, Bethesda, Maryland
• 1965-1968 - Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Neurology, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, NY
• 1968-1985 - Chief of the Laboratory of Preclinical Pharmacology, NIMH, St. Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, DC
• 1985-1994 - Director and Founder, Institute of Neuroscience, and Professor of Pharmacology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
• 1994-1995 - Director, Center for Neuropharmacology, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, New York University, New York, NY
• 1995 - Scientific Director, Psychiatric Institute, Professor of Biochemistry in Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
  • 1982 - Member, National Academy of Sciences 1991 - Member of "Accademia dei Lincei" founded by Galileo Galilei in 1602, Rome

Books

• Advances in Biochemical Psychopharmacology (1969)
• Biochemistry and Pharmacology of the Basal Ganglia (1966)
• Biochemistry of Simple Neuronal Models (1970)
• Neurosteroids and Brain Function (1991)
• The Endorphins - Vol. 18 (1985)

See also

• Bernard Brodie, in whose laboratory Costa worked for a time.

External links

• Erminio Costa, M.D.
• Obituary—Erminio Costa, M.D. (1924-2009), University of Illinois at Chicago - obituary at Schizophrenia Research Forum

Notes and References

1. Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014. Social Security Administration.
2. Grayson . D. R. . Guidotti . A. . 10.1038/npp.2009.231 . Erminio Costa . Neuropsychopharmacology . 35 . 13 . 2646 . 2010 . 3055564.
3. Book: Clayton, Paula J. . Paula Clayton. Fatemi, S. Hossein . The medical basis of psychiatry . Humana Press . Totowa, NJ . 2008 . 1-58829-917-1 .
4. Book: Barondes, Samuel H. . Better than Prozac: Creating the next generation of psychiatric drugs . Oxford University Press . Oxford [Oxfordshire] . 2003 . 0-19-515130-5 . registration .
5. Brain allopregnanolone regulates the potency of the GABA(A) receptor agonist muscimol. Neuropharmacology. 2000-01-28. 0028-3908. 10698010. 440–448. 39. 3. G.. Pinna. V.. Uzunova. K.. Matsumoto. G.. Puia. J. M.. Mienville. E.. Costa. A.. Guidotti. 10.1016/s0028-3908(99)00149-5.
6. Costa E, Chen Y, Davis J, Dong E, Noh JS, Tremolizzo L, Veldic M, Grayson DR, Guidotti A . REELIN and schizophrenia: a disease at the interface of the genome and the epigenome . . 2 . 1 . 47–57 . February 2002 . 14993361 . 10.1124/mi.2.1.47 . https://archive.today/20130414065310/http://molinterv.aspetjournals.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=14993361 . dead . 2013-04-14 .
7. Web site: UIC, Dept. of Psychiatry News: Erminio Costa, M.D., Logs 1,000th Publication . https://web.archive.org/web/20040430172358/http://www.psych.uic.edu/news/Costa.htm . 30 April 2004.
8. Bloom FE . Mentored and inspired by Mimo: a tribute to Erminio Costa . Neuropharmacology . 60 . 7-8 . 1003–6 . June 2011 . 20869374 . 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2010.09.019 . free .