One Mind has announced its 2018 Rising Star Awards, which are sponsored by One Mind and Janssen Research & Development, LLC. These awards identify and fund pivotal, innovative research on the causes of and cures for brain disorders.
One Mind’s Scientific Advisory Board has chosen Susanne Ahmari, M.D., Ph.D., to receive the 2018 One Mind / Janssen Rising Star Translational Research Award in Honor of the Late Jeffrey S. Nye, M.D., Ph.D.; Paul Jenkins, Ph.D., to receive the 2018 One Mind Rising Star Bipolar Disorder Translational Research Award; and Erin Dunn, ScD, MPH to receive the 2018 One Mind Peter Chiarelli Rising Star Collaborative Research Award. In addition to her Rising Star Award, Dr. Ahmari has also won the 2018 One Mind / Inscopix Technology Supplement Grant.
Dr. Ahmari is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), a chronic, severe mental illness that affects 2-3% of the population worldwide. Dr. Ahmari aims to identify novel molecular targets that cause the alterations in brain circuits and symptoms associated with this disorder and will use the technology supplement grant, comprised of Inscopix’s state-of-the-art nVoke miniature microscope system, to map patterns of neural activity related to compulsive behaviors in mouse models of OCD.
Dr. Jenkins is Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Psychiatry at University of Michigan. To identify and develop more effective treatments for bipolar disorder, Dr. Jenkins will use rodent models and patient-derived cell cultures to test his hypothesis that alterations in a protein (anykyrin-G) play a key role in this disorder. Dr. Jenkins will also investigate whether current treatments effectively target the anykyrin-G protein.
Erin Dunn is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Dunn will analyze extensive data from the Pregnancy and Childhood Epigenetics consortium, and other cohorts, to understand why childhood stress is a major risk factor for depression in adolescents and young adults. She hypothesizes that the effects of stress are time-sensitive and focuses her initial analysis on alterations in DNA methylation and gene expression in early childhood (0 – 5 years).
The One Mind Rising Star Awards support emerging leaders in the field of neuropsychiatry, fulfill innovative research needs not yet supported by the federal government, and encourage collaboration and data sharing through the One Mind Portal.
“This year’s three Rising Stars are pioneers in their fields, and I am proud that One Mind can support their work over the next three years,” states One Mind President, Brandon Staglin. “We at One Mind extend our profound thanks to our donors and especially to Janssen Research & Development for enabling us to offer these awards.”
The 2018 Rising Star Award winners were selected with the assistance and recommendations of the One Mind Scientific Advisory Board, which includes nine of the leading brain scientists in the world, noted for their pioneering research in their respective fields. Each Rising Star recipient will receive $250,000 over a three year-period to fund research for their studies and will be invited to present about their research at the 24th Music Festival for Brain Health, to take place in Rutherford, California on Saturday, September 15, 2018.
Learn more at www.onemind.org.
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