Joseph T. Coyle

Upon returning to Holy Cross, he wrote his senior thesis on Irish playwright Samuel Beckett, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

[7] Inspired by Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, and Jean-Paul Sartre, Coyle became a psychiatric orderly at a local community hospital during the summer after college.

He studied medicine at Johns Hopkins University and attended lectures by Leon Eisenberg, Jerome Frank, Robert Cooke, Seymour Kety, and Curt Richter.

During this time period, Coyle worked with Julius Axelrod, a Nobel laureate known for his research on catecholamines, which include epinephrine and norepinephrine.

Coyle has studied glutamate's excitatory effects on the brain along with the role this neurotransmitter plays in common mental illnesses, primarily in schizophrenia.

Coyle’s lab aims to mimic the neuromolecular mechanisms underlying these disorders in model organisms such as mice, who have similar nervous systems to humans.

One way they do this is by targeting the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR), which has a vital role in transmission of excitatory information within numerous brain pathways and structures.

For example, the work Coyle’s lab published regarding the role of NMDARs in schizophrenia led to testing of NMDAR-restoring medications, which resulted in reversal of damage to functional pathways, as well as overall improvement in behavior and cognitive abilities.