The brain and the immune system interact in a complex manner. This lecture will provide an overview of this relationship and explain how immune function affects mood, and how depression in turn, may affect immune function. The potential for using immune-modifying medications to treat depression will also be discussed.

Dr. Savitz completed an undergraduate degree (B.S.) at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and earned his PhD in psychiatric genetics at the University of Cape Town. Subsequently, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD before moving to Tulsa in November 2009 to take a faculty position at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research.
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