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For immediate release
NARSAD Presents 2006 Prizes for Outstanding Psychiatric Research
Prize recipients have contributed to the understanding and treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression in women, teen suicide and cognitive dysfunction
(Great Neck, NY-
) — The five most prestigious awards in brain and behavioral disorders science were presented to some of the world’s most prominent researchers in psychiatry by NARSAD: The Mental Health Research Association at the organization’s 19th annual New York City gala on October 27th.
NARSAD, the world’s largest donor-supported organization dedicated to funding research on severe mental illnesses, also paid tribute at its fete in the Pierre Hotel to the 20th anniversary of its Scientific Council, a committee comprised of world-renowned researchers and clinicians who select the recipients of these annual prizes and the organization’s other highly-regarded research grants.
Because of NARSAD’s distinctive history of contributing to the support and public understanding of neuropsychiatric research, the organization is able each year to recognize those scientists whose career achievements are especially noteworthy in the fields of schizophrenia, mood disorders, childhood and adolescent psychiatry, and cognitive neuroscience research. This year’s recipients have made exceptional contributions to the understanding and treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, depression in women, teen suicide and the cognitive dysfunctions that underlie many mental illnesses.
The 2006 NARSAD prizes and their recipients are:
- Lieber Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Schizophrenia Research ($50,000): Jeffrey A. Lieberman, M.D., chair of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and psychiatrist-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, has been chosen to receive this prize for bringing new understanding to the development and progression of schizophrenia, and the mechanisms and effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs for treating the disease.
According to NARSAD’s Lieber Prize Selection Committee: Dr. Lieberman has made a major scientific impact on our understanding and treatment of schizophrenia. Through a series of systematic studies, he focused on elucidating the psychobiology of patients experiencing their first episode of psychosis and showed these people have progressive changes in the structure of their brains. Recently, Dr. Lieberman has served as principal investigator of the largest randomized clinical trial of treatments for schizophrenia, the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE), sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health.
- Falcone Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Affective Disorders Research ($50,000): Lori L. Altshuler, M.D., is chair in mood disorders and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, where she directs the Mood Disorders Research Program and Women’s Research Program.
About her work, the Falcone Prize Selection Committee wrote: Dr. Altshuler is being honored for her outstanding achievements in enhancing the understanding and treatment of patients with severe mood disorders, particularly bipolar disorder and recurring depression. Using brain imaging, she uncovered mechanisms involved in these disorders that are localized to the temporal lobe, especially the amygdala. Her work in therapeutics for these conditions has been equally stellar. She found that even mild depression has striking effects on quality of life, and she has studied and found medications that assist in achieving full remission by treating the associated symptoms of anxiety, obesity, fatigue and poor concentration. She has conducted vital studies of the effects of mood disorders and medications on endocrine and reproductive function.
- Ruane Prize for Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatric Research ($50,000):The Ruane Prize is shared this year by David A. Brent, M.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and David Shaffer, M.D., Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, for their individual studies of teen suicide.
The Ruane Prize Selection Committee chose Drs. Brent and Shaffer to share the prize because of their innovative leadership in the study of the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of childhood depression and suicide: Both have explored the issues using many angles, including epidemiological, drug and non-drug based approaches, advocacy groups and public education. Their respective ground-breaking research about detecting mental illness and suicide risk in teens and preventing teen suicide has had a vitally important influence on today’s educators and practitioners.
Dr. Brent holds an endowed chair in suicide studies at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where he is also academic chief of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry, director of services for teens-at-risk and professor of child psychiatry. The focus of Dr. Brent’s research efforts has been to understand adolescent depression and suicidal behavior, and to translate research findings into prevention and treatment. His research group has conducted psychological autopsy studies that have helped to establish the role of mood disorder, substance abuse, impulsive aggression, parental suicidal behavior and access to guns as risk factors for adolescent suicide.
Dr. Shaffer is a professor of child psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and director of the division of child psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Since the 1960s, when he conducted the first epidemiological study of child and early adolescent suicide using the psychological autopsy method, his research has been devoted to developing new prevention and treatment protocols against teen suicide. Having conducted many studies on the risk factors for teen suicide, he set out to develop a strategy and technique for screening teens for the disorders that predispose them to suicide and created the Columbia Teen Screen, which is in use nationwide.
- Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience ($40,000): Joaquin M. Fuster, M.D., Ph.D., is professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral science at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he also serves on the medical school faculty and is a member of the Brain Research Institute and the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior. Building on a half-century of seminal research at UCLA on the functions of the brain’s frontal lobe, Dr. Fuster is currently investigating the relationships between neural activity and cortical blood flow in working memory.
The selection committee wrote about Dr. Fuster: He is a brilliant neuroscientist who has pioneered an understanding of the brain’s cerebral cortex, particularly its mechanisms of cognitive functions. Dr. Fuster has studied fundamental processes, such as attention and memory and the integration of information across different sensory modalities, which are critically altered in mental illness. His techniques, findings and conceptual ideas, which have been published in scientific papers and books, have had a profound influence on scholars worldwide. Dr. Fuster’s research also can be applied to schizophrenia, and should lead to more effective understanding, treatment and rehabilitation of the condition.
- The Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Prize ($40,000): Lorna W. Role, Ph.D., is a professor of anatomy and cell biology at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, where for the past 21 years she has conducted promising research into the mechanisms of the central nervous system. Beginning with studies on the physiology and development of neuronal synapses responsive to nicotine, her research has focused on molecular mechanisms and neural pathways underlying motivation, memory and mood, particularly as they relate to schizophrenia. Over the last decade, her lab has identified proteins produced by a candidate gene for schizophrenia, neuregulin-1, shown to be key regulators of the formation and maintenance of central nervous system circuits.
The Baer Prize recipient is selected by the Lieber Prize recipient, this year Dr. Lieberman, who wrote about Dr. Role: She has carried out spectacular work on the combined effects of candidate schizophrenia genes on the mechanisms that cause the disease and give rise to its symptoms. She also has looked at novel therapeutic agents based on her research.
(Additional background on the prize recipients is available on request.)
“All these scientists have demonstrated the highest levels of commitment to research and devised outstanding approaches to our understanding and treatment of an area of human illness more devastating than any other,” said Herbert Pardes, M.D., president and chief executive officer of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, who serves as president of NARSAD’s Scientific Council, which selects the prize winners.
NARSAD began awarding prizes in 1987, with the introduction of the Lieber Prize, and over the years added the other prizes as a way to recognize those responsible for outstanding scientific advances in brain science and improved patient psychiatric treatment. Previous winners of NARSAD’s Lieber Prize include two scientists who subsequently received Nobel Prizes for their research, which had earlier been recognized by NARSAD: Dr. Arvid Carlson of Gothenberg University in Sweden in 1990 and Dr. Paul Greengard of Rockefeller University in 1999. Through its annual program of prizes for outstanding research achievement, NARSAD has awarded 43 scientists more than $2 million since 1987.
Besides honoring the this year’s prize winners, NARSAD’s recent gala celebrated the 20th anniversary of the organization’s 94-member Scientific Council, whose president since inception has been Dr. Pardes. The Council consists of exceptional leaders in brain and behavior research, psychiatry and neuroscience who volunteer their services in selecting NARSAD’s prize winners and research grant recipients. Since 1987, when NARSAD began awarding research grants, the Council has selected 2,284 scientists in 347 universities and medical centers in the United States and 25 other countries to receive 2,948 research grants worth $199.3 million.
“The structure and vision of NARSAD is pioneering,” Dr. Pardes said. “No other private mental health organization has made the same commitment to funding our nation’s basic research in brain and behavioral sciences.”
More than $1 million was raised through the gala for NARSAD’s research grants program. Because two family foundations underwrite the organization’s administrative and overhead costs, all contributions to NARSAD go directly and entirely to support research.
 
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