NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grantee Ronald S. Duman, Ph.D., and Yale University colleagues discover how stress and depression can shrink the brain.

NARSAD Independent Investigator Grantee Olivier Manzoni, Ph.D., of INSERM in France, and NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grantee Daniele Piomelli, University of California, Irvine identify chemicals in the brain that improve symptoms of Fragile X Syndrome (the most common known genetic cause of autism).

NARSAD Young Investigator Grantee, Chiara Nosarti, Ph.D., of King’s College London and colleagues at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, demonstrate that premature birth heightens risk for mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia.

NARSAD Independent Investigator Grantee Andrew Miller, M.D., and Emory University colleagues demonstrate an antidepressant response by treating inflammation. Patient responsiveness to the treatment can be predicted with a simple blood test.

NARSAD Independent Investigator Grantee Carlos Zarate, M.D., and team at the National Institute of Mental Health, discover a biological predictor for patient responsiveness to a rapid-acting antidepressant, ketamine.

NARSAD Independent Investigator Anil K. Malhotra, M.D. of Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine and The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, NY, and team including eight NARSAD Grantees identify a gene variant linked to antipsychotic-medication-induced weight gain. The discovery should lead to optimized treatment decisions for patients with schizophrenia.

NARSAD Young Investigator Grantee, Dr. Paola Dazzan and colleagues at King’s College London develop a new technology that can predict the future course of illness after a first psychotic episode. Until now, the inability to predict a patient’s future illness has made it difficult to know what treatment to prescribe.

NARSAD Young Investigator Grantee Olivier Berton, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania, and team, identify a protein linked to natural resiliency to stress, pointing to a new treatment possibility for anxiety disorders and depression.

Separate research teams led by NARSAD Grantees Karl Deisseroth, M.D., Ph.D. of Stanford University and Eric Nestler, M.D., Ph.D. of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, demonstrate how dopamine neurons are linked to depression, thus opening a new pathway for treatment of the illness.

NARSAD Grantees Karuna Subramaniam, Ph.D. and Sophia Vinogradov, M.D., at the University of California, San Francisco, show that targeted computer “brain training” improves behavioral symptoms and brain activity in patients with schizophrenia.