Lorna Role Receives Narsad "Distinguished Investigator" Award
“Distinguished Investigator” Award from NARSAD (GREAT NECK, N.Y., May 17, 2007) — Lorna Role, Ph.D., of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, has been selected by NARSAD: The Mental Health Research Association to receive its prestigious Distinguished Investigator Award.
NARSAD is the world’s leading donor-supported, non-governmental organization dedicated to funding research on psychiatric disorders. NARSAD will provide Dr. Role a one-year grant of $100,000 to advance her project on the relationship of a gene called Nrg1 to schizophrenia.
Dr. Role, who is a professor of anatomy and cell biology at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and at Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons, is one of 23 outstanding scientists who are receiving NARSAD’s 2007 Distinguished Investigator Award, a highly competitive grant program for investigators who have established themselves as leaders in their fields. She previously received a NARSAD Distinguished Investigator grant in 2000, and last fall received the organization’s 2007 Baer Prize for Schizophrenia Research.
Dr. Role will use her current NARSAD Distinguished Investigator award to follow up her prior in vivo studies about the relationship of a gene called Nrg1 to schizophrenia. These studies demonstrated that mice with genetic deficits in Nrgl expression have altered migration, connectivity and plasticity of cortical interneurons. Dr. Role will now examine the interaction of genetic deficits in Nrgl with those of MAP-6 (STOP) in mouse studies. She will test the concept that interactions between multiple genes implicated in distinct and overlapping aspects of schizophrenia-related phenotypes might provide better models of these maladies. The ultimate aim is development of novel therapeutics in specific neural pathways involving behaviors relevant for mental illness.
“Dr. Role is an outstanding scientist, representing the very best in the field and pursuing innovative and promising research,” said Constance E. Lieber, president of NARSAD.
“The work of each of this year’s Distinguished Investigators will advance the state of knowledge about serious psychiatric disorders,” added Herbert Pardes, M.D., president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, who also serves as president of NARSAD’s Scientific Council. The council, comprised of 94 prominent neuroscientists, reviews the research proposals NARSAD receives and recommends grants.
“The work of Dr. Role is extremely impressive, and, like that of our other 22 awardees, represents, in our judgment, a leap of ideas that has very real potential to produce insights that will lead to new approaches to treatment for serious mental illness,” commented Jack Barchas, M.D., chairman of the department of psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and chair of the committee that selected the winning proposals.
NARSAD’s 2007 Distinguished Investigator Award recipients are involved in a wide variety of vital research projects, ranging from the genetics of mental illness to innovative brain imaging studies. Their work should bring new scientific insight to such conditions as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety and autism, and other disorders that affect adults and children.
NARSAD created the Distinguished Investigator Award to support highly significant research by established scientists—full professors or their equivalent—who are on the cusp of a breakthrough. The organization also offers two other annual awards. The Independent Investigator Award provides two-year grants of $100,000 to mid-career scientists, such as associate professors or their equivalent. The Young Investigator Award is designed to help promising scientists entering research—i.e., post-doctoral fellows, advanced standing medical residents and assistant professors—to generate pilot data necessary for larger grants.
NARSAD: The Mental Health Research Association raises funds to advance research on the causes, treatment and prevention of psychiatric disorders. Founded in 1987 as the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, it is the largest donor-supported organization in the world devoted to funding scientific research on neuropsychiatric brain and behavior disorders. Since 1987, NARSAD has awarded $215 million to 2,477 scientists at 415 universities and medical research institutions throughout the United States and in 25 other countries.
For additional information on the work of NARSAD, the research it supports, and various psychiatric disorders, visit the organization’s Web site at www.narsad.org. ### Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in pre-clinical and clinical research, in medical and health sciences education, and in patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, nurses, dentists, and public health professionals at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the Mailman School of Public Health, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. www.cumc.columbia.edu