Renowned Researcher Named to UCI Chair

Oliver Civelli, a neuroscientist renowned for his research in brain receptors, has been appointed to the Eric L. and Lila D. Nelson Endowed Chair of Neuropharmacology at UC Irvine.

Civelli, 47, comes to UCI from Basel, Switzerland, where he worked as assistant director of the international pharmaceutical company F. Hoffmann-La Roche since 1992.

At UCI, officials said, he plans to continue his research on dopamine receptors, which are the primary targets of drug therapies for treating Parkinson’s disease, Tourette’s syndrome and schizophrenia.

“To come to a university like UC Irvine, which already has a strong commitment to neurosciences, was very appealing,” Civelli said in a statement.

The Nelson chair was established in 1995 when the Newport Beach couple for whom it is named donated $1 million to the university for psychiatric and neurological research.

Civelli was selected as chair because of his extensive research on treating such diseases. He holds several U.S. patents on dopamine receptors and has written dozens of papers on neuroscience and molecular biology. He also serves on the editorial boards of two medical journals.

Civelli received a doctorate in molecular biology from the Swiss Institute of Technology in Zurich. He was a professor at the University of Oregon for 13 years before joining the pharmaceutical company.

He was a founding member of the University of Oregon’s Vollum Institute for Advanced Biology and Anatomy, where he made most of his discoveries about dopamine receptors.

“UCI already is one of the nation’s academic and research leaders in neurosciences and pharmacology, and Civelli’s appointment is further recognition of UCI’s standing,” said Larry Stein, chair of the Department of Pharmacology at UCI’s College of Medicine.