|
 |
||
      |
|
|
|
 Press Release 
For immediate release From brain-imaging to gene studies, new research will lead to better treatments and cures for millions who suffer from serious mental illness The grants, which include 220 Young Investigator and 11 Distinguished Investigator awards, represent $14.3 million of NARSAD’s $18.3 million designated for new grants in 2008; more grants will be awarded in late July. NARSAD’s cumulative grant-making since 1987 totals more than $233 million in research funds to nearly 2,700 scientists in the United States and 27 other countries. The review and selection of the grants, chosen from more than 1,000 proposals, was guided by NARSAD’s Scientific Council, a volunteer group of 103 eminent leaders in the field of psychiatric and neuroscience research. “Our Scientific Council’s ability to identify projects with real potential to break new ground is what makes these NARSAD grants the phenomenal tool they have become within the mental health research community,” said Geoff Birkett, NARSAD’s president and CEO. “Over the years, our grantees report that the research they conduct with their NARSAD grants helps them secure additional funding to expand their research – on average, 19 times the amount of their seed funding from NARSAD.” NARSAD’s 2008 Distinguished Investigators and Young Investigators come from a full range of scholarly approaches in psychiatry, neurology, psychology, epidemiology, molecular biology and many other areas of medical and biological research. Their studies will cover a range of serious brain and behavioral disorders, in which they will make use of the most powerful research tools available, including genetic and advanced imaging technologies. Young Investigator Awards: New Cohort of Scientists Launched Into Research After reviewing more than 900 proposals from researchers worldwide, NARSAD has awarded 220 Young Investigator grants for 2008. These early-career scientists from the United States and 11 other countries will each receive $30,000 annually in support of one or two years of research. This year’s recipients are embarking upon studies that press the boundaries of current understanding and treatment of mental illness. Whether pursuing new leads about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression emerging from brain-imaging and gene studies, or tackling the escalating public health concerns of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and autism, their projects reflect the vastly broadening scope, depth and promise of contemporary neuroscience. 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 grants 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, pointed to several strong trends in this year’s funded projects:
Distinguished Investigator Awards: “Encouraging Genuinely New Approaches” This year’s 11 Distinguished Investigators, chosen from 160 applicants, will each receive a one-year $100,000 grant to explore areas with the greatest potential to lead the field forward in its understanding and treatment of serious mental illness. “The Distinguished Investigator awards are especially important because they permit extraordinarily talented individuals of known achievement to test exciting new approaches,” said Jack Barchas, M.D., chair of psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and chair of the committee that selects NARSAD’s Distinguished Investigators. “With the increased difficulty in obtaining research funding at the federal level, NARSAD’s Distinguished Investigator program takes on even more importance. These grants are one of the few mechanisms that encourage genuinely new approaches.” Among this year’s recipients, for example, is Nobel laureate Paul Greengard, of Rockefeller University, whose NARSAD grant will allow him to study how antipsychotic medications work at the cellular and molecular levels, with the aim of contributing to the development of more effective pharmacological treatments. This year’s other Distinguished Investigators will use their grants for studies on various genes thought to contribute to the development of schizophrenia; the possibility that antibodies in mothers might be a cause of autism in their children; the relationship of prenatal famine to the development of schizophrenia in offspring; the mechanism of action of an established anesthetic drug, ketamine, which also has a rapid antidepressant effect; and how the use of cannabis may pose a risk for developing schizophrenia. A complete list of the 2008 Distinguished Investgators and their proposed studies appears below. In late July, NARSAD will announce its 2008 Independent Investigator Awards, two-year grants of $100,000 designated for mid-career scientists who have successfully established independent research programs.
 Download the 2008 Young Investigator Award RecipientsFor more detailed descriptions of these research studies, click here or contact Kristen Simone or Natalie Greaves at 516-829-0091. |
Media Contact
Upcoming NARSAD Events
Latest News from NARSAD
Spotlight
|
|||||
For the Media