In Their Own Words: Meet The Distinguished Investigators

In 2011, the Foundation awarded $1.5 million in NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grants to fund 15 brilliant scientists.

The NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Grant is the largest grant awarded by the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, and provides up to $100,000 for a one-year study per scientist. Distinguished Investigator Grantees (we like to call them “D.I.’s” for short!) already have a proven record of extraordinary research accomplishments and receive the grant to pursue a novel or innovative research idea.

Meet some of the brilliant 2011 NARSAD Grantees:

Kelsey C. Martin, M.D., Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles: “I am fortunate to have received research support from NARSAD Grants throughout my career, as a Young and Independent Investigator, and now a Distinguished Investigator. At each step, NARSAD Grant-funding has allowed me to explore new directions and ideas in my research. My lab uses basic molecular and cell biological approaches to understand how experience changes the circuitry of the brain and NARSAD Grants have allowed us to more directly consider our studies in the context of human mental illness. While I am convinced that cures to neuropsychiatric disease are most likely to come from a mechanistic understanding of nervous system function, the gap between basic neuroscience and psychiatry can be daunting. Through its support research aimed at understanding mental illness from a breadth of perspectives, The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, with its NARSAD Grants, narrows that gap.”

Ralph E. Hoffman, M.D.

Ralph E. Hoffman, M.D., Yale University School of Medicine, Yale University: “In spite of advances in drug therapies and other approaches over the past 20 years, I continue to see the terrible devastation of [schizophrenia] time and time again ─ where talented, intelligent young people become hugely challenged with the burden of bizarre and disruptive experiences, with lost capacity in terms of school, work and social function.  Although there have been incremental advances in understanding various aspects of this illness, there has been no breakout finding that has lead to a more definitive treatment.  I would like to try to do something about that. Second, I believe that figuring out the basis of schizophrenia will also provide deep insights into how the brain works normally ─ how large populations of unintelligent neurons on their own connect and interact to generate ideas, language, emotions and social knowledge that make us human.”

 “This NARSAD Grant has enabled me to launch a new research direction examining brain mechanisms causing schizophrenia. Our approach is based on a combined artificial neural network simulation / human narrative memory study by our group suggesting a new illness model of schizophrenia. The model predicts that aberrant neuroplasticity during consolidation of autobiographical memories intermingles and corrupts these memories thereby producing delusions and derailed narratives (Hoffman et al. Biological Psychiatry 2011). The NARSAD Grant will enable us for the first time to test this hypothesis directly in brain using functional MRI. This is a very exciting prospect because the hypothesis provides a detailed roadmap of how schizophrenia might develop during late adolescence and early adulthood, and, if confirmed, would suggest new approaches to treatment.” 

Michael S. Fanselow, Ph.D.

Michael S. Fanselow, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles: “It has always been amazing to me how a single experience can radically and permanently change brain function. When these changes have such an adverse effect on people, as happens in PTSD, it becomes urgent for us to understand what happens and what needs to be done to restore normal adaptive function. Obviously the NARSAD Grant is a tremendous honor. The project will allow us to pursue and develop new avenues of research we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. Specifically, it should recognize that fear normally serves a critical function and is a necessary adaptation. But experiences that provoke PTSD lead to nonadaptive function in those normally beneficial circuits. The Foundation is giving us the opportunity to directly compare the ensemble of neural activity that leads to both adaptive and nonadaptive fear and to see what is similar and dissimilar about that neural activity.”

Stephen R. Marder, M.D.

Stephen R. Marder, M.D., University of California, Los Angeles: “The NARSAD Grant will allow me to begin a new area of research. In recent years I have focused on strategies for improving the ability of people with schizophrenia to improve their social interactions. For many of these people, difficulties in interpreting social signals have had serious effects on their ability to succeed at jobs, school, and rehabilitation programs. My research will focus on studying promising medications such as oxytocin which may improve the ability of patients to improve their social skills during a training program.”

Read more about the entire D.I. Class of 2011 HERE.