Carlos A. Zarate, Jr., M.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health used a 2005 Foundation Independent Investigator Grant to further studies on what is being heralded by experts as the biggest change in the treatment of depression in the last 50 years. The goal of his project was to develop new, improved and more rapidly-acting therapies for treatment-resistant major depression.
Karl Deisseroth, M.D., Ph.D., used his 2005 NARSAD Young Investigator Grant to develop optogenetics, a new technology that has revolutionized systems neuroscience by providing precise control over brain circuitry in awake, behaving animals. Optogenetics involves the use of light to rapidly open and close the membrane channels that make neurons fire and cease firing and allows for observation of the effects on behavior.
Francis S. Lee, M.D., Ph.D., of Weill Cornell Medical College, was the recipient of two Foundation Young Investigator Grants (in 2005 and 2002) that supported research on growth factors called NGF (nerve growth factor) and BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which support the birth and growth of new brain cells. Dr. Lee wanted to see if there were alternate ways to activate these growth factor receptors in order to identify novel targets for next-generation therapies for a broad range of mental illnesses.
In groundbreaking work, Kerry J. Ressler, M.D., Ph.D., with the aid of a Young Investigator Grant, discovered that targeted medication can improve the effect of psychotherapy. This paradigm-shifting work showed that treatment with D-cycloserine (or DCS) enhanced the effect of exposure-based psychotherapy for fear of heights, and led to further work showing similar results for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder, and social phobia.
Daniel Weinberger, M.D., received a NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grant in 2000 to take an innovative approach in the search to identify genes that increase susceptibility for developing schizophrenia. Dr. Weinberger worked with 400 sibling pairs and measured levels of the brain chemical n-acetyl-aspartate (NAA), a neurochemical measure related to the integrity of glutamate neurons, to determine if this could be linked with targeted genetic association studies in schizophrenia.
