Nataliya Alexandrovna Uranova is the head of the laboratory of clinical neuromorphology with the pathomorphology group, doctor of medical sciences. In 1976 she upheld her PhD's thesis “Synaptic organization of superficial neuronal system of superior colliculi of the quadrigeminal plate” and in 1995 - her doctoral thesis “Dopaminergic system of the brain in schizophrenia (ultrastructural morphometric study)”. Her scientific interests involve neuroscience, biological psychiatry, neuromorphology. She has 98 scientific publications in the national and foreign literature. Under her scientific supervision, 1 PhD's has been upheld. She took part in the organization of collection of autopsy materials and creation of a collection of brain autopsy samples taken within a short postmortem period. She participated in the organization and conduction of international research programs.

The laboratory of clinical neuromorphology was organized among the first in the structure of the Institute of Psychiatry of AMS USSR in 1944. Well-known national neuromorphologists, such as L.O.Smirnov, V.K. Beletsky, A.A. Khachaturyan and others worked in this laboratory in various years or co-operated with it. In the 60-90-ies the laboratory was headed by V.A. Romasenko and D.D. Orlovskaya. Since 1994 the head of the laboratory has been N.A. Uranova. The laboratory conducted widely known trials related to general aspects of neuromorphology and cytoarchitectonics, glial pathology, neuroanatomy of various forms of schizophrenia, endocrine status in schizophrenia, as well as neuromorphology of epilepsy and somatogenic psychoses. In the 70-80-s, a significant part of the laboratory's activities was devoted to the evaluation of fetal brain tissue, taken from schizophrenic mothers, as well as to the assessment of brain amyloidosis in Alzheimer's disease. Activities of the laboratory were always characterized by the use of the newest investigational methods (electronic microscopy and cytochemistry, brain cell culture, morphometry with computer analysis, etc.).

The laboratory is staffed with 6 research fellows.

The structure of the laboratory consists of 2 groups: study group on neuromorphology; pathologoanatomic group.

Scope of research activities of the Laboratory:

• Morphometric and immunocytochemical evaluation of ultrastructural pathology of the brain in schizophrenia, with a differentiated assessment of neuronal and glial status, as well as of intercellular contacts (neuronal axons and synapses).
• Evaluation of morphometric signs of changes in the ultrastructure of neural tissue culture under the influence of blood serum from patients with endogenous psychoses, aimed at identification of their correlation with clinical parameters of the disease.
• Comparative study on chromosomal organization and function in various cell types of normals, of patients with Alzheimer's disease and with schizophrenia (in collaboration with the laboratory of cytogenetics).