Philip Seeman

Philip Seeman, OC FRSC (8 February 1934 – 9 January 2021) was a Canadian schizophrenia researcher and neuropharmacologist, known for his research on dopamine receptors.^[1]

Philip Seeman
Born	(1934-02-08)8 February 1934 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Died	9 January 2021(2021-01-09) (aged 86) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Awards	Order of Canada

Career

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Seeman was raised in Montreal. He received a Bachelor of Science degree, honours physics & physiology (1955), a Master of Science degree, physiology of transport & secretion (1956), and a Doctor of Medicine (1960) from McGill University. In 1966, he received a Ph.D. in life sciences from Rockefeller University under the supervision of George Emil Palade.^[2]

In 1967, Seeman became an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Toronto. In 1970, he was appointed a professor.

In 1974, having spent years in search of the binding site of antipsychotic medication, he discovered the dopamine D2 receptor, the basis for the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia.^[3][4] His discoveries also helped advance research on other diseases involving dopamine, such as Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease.^[2]

In 1985, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.^[5]

In 2001, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for his research on dopamine receptors and their involvement in diseases such as schizophrenia, Parkinson's and Huntington's".^[6]

He was married to Dr. Mary V. Seeman.^[7]