The Mirnics laboratory has a long-time interest in gene expression profiles in schizophrenia, focusing on gene expression patterns in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Neuroimmune and synaptic changes in schizophrenia are of particular interest to the laboratory, and the human postmortem findings are also followed up in a 2nd trimester intrauterine poly (I:C) immune activation mouse model. The laboratory has been involved in Alzheimer’s disease, autism, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis-related research projects, as well as developing novel DNA microarray technologies. In his research Mirnics routinely uses in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry, laser dissection microscopy, qPCR and DNA microarray analyses. Furthermore, laboratory operations are expanding to perform in vitro and in vivo assays that are mechanistically addressing the transcriptoem profile changes. In addition, novel effort also will include generation of inducible transgenic mice that will be relevant to our understanding of the pathophysiological processes in schizophrenia.