NARSAD Announces 216 New Grants For Research On Mental Illnesses, Providing Funds For Innovative Studies By Established And Early-Career Scientists

Main Category: Mental Health
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry;  Autism;  ADHD
Article Date: 21 Apr 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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NARSAD, the world's leading charity dedicated to mental health research, is pleased to announce that it has selected 216 scientists to receive its 2009 Distinguished and Young Investigator awards, which support work being conducted by established and early-career scientists, respectively. The grants will go toward research that may provide new findings on serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, including PTSD and OCD, and childhood mental illnesses, including autism and ADHD.

This year's selection marks the launch of NARSAD's 23rd grantmaking cycle, with the awards being distributed among 16 Distinguished Investigators and 200 Young Investigators. Their awards represent $13.5 million in new grants for 2009, bringing NARSAD's cumulative total of funds awarded since 1987 to more than $250 million through 3,732 research grants. These funds have supported the work of 2,887 scientists at more than 435 institutions in the U.S. and 27 other countries. Additional grants for mid-career scientists, Independent Investigator awards, will also be announced later this year.

"The remarkable approaches to research chosen by NARSAD grantees have led the way to profound advances in neuroscience," said Herbert Pardes, M.D., president of NARSAD's Scientific Council, who is also president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. "For many of the young and established researchers in this year's class of grantees, NARSAD funding will help to demonstrate what can truly be accomplished when we combine our commitment to finding cures with the necessary resources."

NARSAD's grant selection process is guided by its 110-member Scientific Council under Dr. Pardes' leadership. The council is comprised of world-leading scientists considered to be the foremost authorities in their respective fields, whose function is to review grant proposals and make recommendations for funding.

"NARSAD's Scientific Council is the guiding force for all of our work," said Joel Gurin, Acting President of NARSAD. "We are very fortunate to have the commitment of this extraordinary group of scientists - including several Nobel Laureates and former Directors of the National Institute of Mental Health - who volunteer their time to choose the best and most innovative projects for funding."

Distinguished Investigator Awards: For Thought Leaders Providing New Direction

Through its Distinguished Investigator program, NARSAD enables established leaders in neuroscience and psychiatry to pursue new findings. This year's 16 grant recipients will each receive a one-year grant of $100,000, having been chosen from a pool of 143 proposals submitted by applicants from institutions worldwide.

Among the research projects being conducted by this year's Distinguished Investigator class, investigators will utilize their grants to study cognitive function in schizophrenia; identify the role of metabolism in brain function as it relates to schizophrenia, autism and bipolar disorder; trace potential new targets for antidepressant drugs; and find new ways to maximize new technologies such as focused ultrasound pulse (FUP) and diffusion-weighted functional magnetic resonance imaging (DFMRI).

"The Distinguished Investigator category of grants is so significant because it is these thought-leaders who help to provide a new level of direction for the field," said Jack Barchas, M.D., chairman of the department of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and chair of the NARSAD Scientific Council committee that selected the funded proposals. "Their contributions are important and remarkable, attributes that can be seen as a result of the applicants' superb track records, high caliber and excellent collaborations."

A complete list of the 2009 Distinguished Investigators and their proposed studies appears as follows:

- Wade Berrettini, M.D., Ph.D., of University of Pennsylvania, plans to study the genetic foundations of bipolar disorder.

- Alexander Bystritsky, M.D., Ph.D., of University of California, Los Angeles, will use focused ultrasound pulse (FUP) to study brain circuits responsible for the biological mechanisms of mental disorders.

- Pietro de Camilli, M.D., of Yale University, will study the role of metabolism in the regulation of brain function and its potential dysregulation in bipolar disorders, autism and schizophrenia.

- Michael D. Ehlers, M.D., Ph.D., of Duke University, will study activation of dopamine neurons in mouse models to provide a better understanding of behavioral response in relation to drug therapy and addiction.

- Joram Feldon, D.Phil., of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, will study early preventive pharmacotherapy for schizophrenia using animal models.

- Terry E. Goldberg, Ph.D., of the North Shore-LIJ Health System, will study the cognitive function of schizophrenia.

- René Hen, Ph.D., of Columbia University, will study the effectiveness of stimulation of hippocampal neurogenesis to produce antidepressant effects in both rodent models and human subjects.

- Tomas Hökfelt, M.D., Ph.D., of Karolinska Institute, Sweden, will study potential new targets for the development of a new class of antidepressant drugs.

- James Knowles, M.D., of University of Southern California, will study the complete DNA sequence of one male with schizophrenia.

- Stephen Lawrie, M.D., of University of Edinburgh, Scotland, will continue work on previous findings from the famous Edinburgh High Risk Study of Schizophrenia (EHRS), a 10-year study of almost 200 subjects at high genetic risk of schizophrenia, to further study the timing and genetic underpinnings of brain structure abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia.

- Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, M.D., Ph.D., of University of Heidelberg, Germany, will study genetic risk factors for schizophrenia.

- Richard J. Miller, Ph.D., of Northwestern University, will study signaling of the neural stem/progenitor cells in the hippocampus and its affects on patients with schizophrenia.

- Daniele Piomelli, Ph.D., of University of California, Irvine, will study the endocannabinoid system (brain receptors that create a marijuana-like effect to regulate emotion, appetite and other functions) as a source of new anti-anxiety medicines.

- Judith L. Rapoport, M.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health, will study genetic risk factors for childhood psychosis.

- Emilie F. Rissman, Ph.D., of University of Virginia, will investigate a genetic approach to new treatments for depression and anxiety in women.

- Martha E. Shenton, Ph.D., of Harvard University, will study neuronal activity in the brains of patients with schizophrenia.

Young Investigator Awards: A New Generation Ready to Make Major Advances

After reviewing over 800 proposals from researchers worldwide, NARSAD has selected 200 researchers during its 2009 grants season to be named as Young Investigators. These early-career scientists from the United States and 10 other countries will each receive $30,000 annually in support of one or two years of research.

This year's recipients are pursuing research that will address some of the biggest areas of growth in neuroscience research, including the study of epigenetics and genomics, cognition in schizophrenia, and new approaches to understanding and treating childhood and adolescent mental disorders, including autism and ADHD.

NARSAD's Young Investigator program plays a seminal role in attracting talented young scientists to the field of neuropsychiatric research and in helping launch their research programs. Young Investigator grants allow new researchers, typically assistant professors or post-doctoral fellows, to gather the pilot data necessary to secure additional research funding from the National Institutes of Health and other, private funding sources.

In reviewing the range of grant-winning proposals, Herbert Meltzer, M.D., the Bixler/May/Johnson Professor of Psychiatry and a professor of pharmacology at Vanderbilt University, who chairs NARSAD's Young Investigator selection committee, commented: "The approved applicants represent a new generation ready and able to make major advances in the understanding and treatment of mental illness. The sophistication of their science -- in basic and clinical research, at the molecular and cellular levels, in genetics and brain imaging, in characterizing the course of illnesses from the prenatal stage across the lifespan -- is truly astonishing compared to the science of only a decade ago. These proposals are proof positive that NARSAD has had a major impact on shaping the research agenda of neuroscience laboratories everywhere."

Dr. Meltzer pointed to several strong trends in this year's class of Young Investigator research:

- Opportunities to add new knowledge to the genetics of mental illness are among the most promising group of applications, including several which focus on "epigenetics," also known as environmentally influenced changes in DNA that occur after fertilization and throughout the lifetime. These may not be passed on to the next generation but may play a powerful role in modifying behavior.

- Another group of genetic studies focusing on 'copy number variations', rare but extremely potent genetic defects, which have sparked an exciting new theory of how genetic deficits may cause schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder.

- A solid focus on animal models of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, an area of investigation that is further complemented by clinical studies of novel treatments to improve cognitive functioning in these patients. Cognitive impairment plays a major role in the functional disability of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder."

Download the 2009 Young Investigator Award Recipients

NARSAD-funded researchers come from a full range of scholarly approaches in both clinical and basic research in the fields of psychiatry, neurology, psychology, epidemiology, molecular biology and many other areas of medical and biological research. For more information about NARSAD's 2009 Distinguished and Young Investigators, and their project summaries, visit http://www.narsad.org/research.

About NARSAD's Scientific Council

Led by Herbert Pardes, M.D., president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, NARSAD's Scientific Council is comprised of 110 leading experts in all phases of psychiatry and neuroscience. The Scientific Council includes two Nobel Prize recipients; eight members of the National Academy of Sciences; 19 fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; 28 members of the Institute of Medicine; three recipients of the National Medal of Science; five current or previous members who have served as director of the National Institute of Mental Health; and the current director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Under Dr. Pardes' leadership, NARSAD'S grantmaking activity has grown from the initial awarding of 10 research grants in 1987 to nearly 300 in 2008.

About NARSAD

NARSAD's primary mission is to alleviate suffering from mental illness by supporting research on the causes, treatment and prevention of psychiatric disorders. NARSAD is a 501(c)(3) registered public charity, supported by individuals, foundations and corporations for the purpose of funding scientific research. All contributions are tax-deductible. For additional information on NARSAD, visit http://www.narsad.org,

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NARSAD