Six new Canada Research Chairs named at Western

Jibran Khokhar is one of six new Western Canada Research Chairs announced August 29, 2023. Khokhar, the new CRC in Translational Neuropsychopharmacology (CIHR Tier 2) is unraveling the mysterious relationship between substance use and serious mental illness. (Mac Lai/Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry) Jibran Khokhar is determined to answer a chicken-and-egg question: Which precedes the other, substance use or serious mental illness? With singular focus and an advanced set of tools, Khokhar, the new Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Translational Neuropsychopharmacology (CIHR Tier 2) at Western, is unraveling the mysterious relationship between substance use and serious mental illness. What led Khokhar to this mystery was a shocking statistic he learned as an undergraduate student.  "It was eye-opening that 90 per cent of all cigarettes are smoked by 10 per cent of the population, and this 10 per cent of the population are those with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia," said Khokhar. "I am trying to understand and answer why this connection is so pronounced in this group." Attracting funds for groundbreaking work The CRC program is designed to attract and retain some of the world's most accomplished and promising minds in engineering, natural sciences, health sciences, humanities and social sciences. Khokhar is among six Western researchers who have been appointed Canada Research Chairs in an announcement made on Aug. 29, bringing the total number of CRCs at Western to 64.