Matthias Quick PhD

Matthias Quick, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Neurobiology (in Psychiatry) in the Department of Psychiatry and the Center for Molecular Recognition in the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and a Research Scientist V in the New York State Psychiatric Institute Division of Molecular Therapeutics. In his capacity as Director of Laboratory Safety, he serves as the Right-to-Know Officer for the Psychiatric Institute.

He was educated in Germany where he obtained his B.S. (1991) and M.S. (1995) in Biology, and his Ph.D. in Microbiology/Membrane Transport (1998) at the University of Osnabrück. During his graduate work under the supervision of Dr. Heinrich Jung, he developed several tools that aided in the functional and structural characterization of Na+-dependent symporters. After his graduation, Dr. Quick did postdoctoral work on the human Na+/glucose transporter (hSGLT1) in the laboratory of Dr. Ernest Wright FRS in the Department of Physiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA where, in addition to the functional characterization of this protein with electrophysiological methods, he established the functional expression of recombinant hSGLT1 in bacteria. Dr. Quick joined the Center for Molecular Recognition in 2003 where, together with Dr. Jonathan Javitch, he studied the structure and function relationship of members of the neurotransmitter: sodium symporter (NSS) family. In 2008 he was appointed to the Faculty of the Department of Psychiatry. His work has substantially contributed to our better understanding of the molecular event underlying Na+-coupled transport processes.