Prize Recipients Have Contributed to the Understanding and Treatment of
Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Depression in Women, Teen Suicide and
Cognitive Dysfunction
GREAT NECK, N.Y., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- This Friday, the five most
prestigious awards in brain and behavioral disorders science will be
presented to some of the world's most prominent researchers in psychiatry
by NARSAD: The Mental Health Research Association at the organization's
19th annual New York City gala.
Because of NARSAD's distinctive history of contributing to the support
and public understanding of neuropsychiatric research, the organization is
able each year to recognize those scientists whose career achievements are
especially noteworthy in the fields of schizophrenia, mood disorders,
childhood and adolescent psychiatry, and cognitive neuroscience research.
This year's recipients have made exceptional contributions to the
understanding and treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder,
depression in women, teen suicide and the cognitive dysfunctions that
underlie many mental illnesses.
The 2006 NARSAD prizes and their recipients are:
* Lieber Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Schizophrenia Research
($50,000): Jeffrey A. Lieberman, M.D., chair of psychiatry at Columbia
University College of Physicians & Surgeons, director of the New York
State Psychiatric Institute, and psychiatrist-in-chief at NewYork-
Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, has been
chosen to receive this prize for bringing new understanding to the
development and progression of schizophrenia, and the mechanisms and
effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs for treating the disease.
According to NARSAD's Lieber Prize Selection Committee: Dr. Lieberman
has made a major scientific impact on our understanding and treatment of
schizophrenia. Through a series of systematic studies, he focused on
elucidating the psychobiology of patients experiencing their first
episode of psychosis and showed these people have progressive changes in
the structure of their brains. Recently, Dr. Lieberman has served as
principal investigator of the largest randomized clinical trial of
treatments for schizophrenia, the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of
Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE), sponsored by the National Institute
of Mental Health.
* Falcone Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Affective Disorders
Research ($50,000): Lori L. Altshuler, M.D., is chair in mood disorders
and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of
California, Los Angeles, Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human
Behavior, where she directs the Mood Disorders Research Program and
Women's Research Program.
About her work, the Falcone Prize Selection Committee wrote: Dr.
Altshuler is being honored for her outstanding achievements in enhancing
the understanding and treatment of patients with severe mood disorders,
particularly bipolar disorder and recurring depression. Using brain
imaging, she uncovered mechanisms involved in these disorders that are
localized to the temporal lobe, especially the amygdala. Her work in
therapeutics for these conditions has been equally stellar. She found
that even mild depression has striking effects on quality of life, and
she has studied and found medications that assist in achieving full
remission by treating the associated symptoms of anxiety, obesity,
fatigue and poor concentration. She has conducted vital studies of the
effects of mood disorders and medications on endocrine and reproductive
function.
* Ruane Prize for Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatric Research ($50,000):
The Ruane Prize is shared this year by David A. Brent, M.D., University
of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and David Shaffer, M.D., Columbia
University College of Physicians & Surgeons, for their individual
studies of teen suicide.
The Ruane Prize Selection Committee chose Drs. Brent and Shaffer to
share the prize because of their innovative leadership in the study of
the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of childhood depression and
suicide: Both have explored the issues using many angles, including
epidemiological, drug and non-drug based approaches, advocacy groups and
public education. Their respective ground-breaking research about
detecting mental illness and suicide risk in teens and preventing teen
suicide has had a vitally important influence on today's educators and
practitioners.
Dr. Brent holds an endowed chair in suicide studies at the Western
Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of the University of Pittsburgh School
of Medicine, where he is also academic chief of the division of child
and adolescent psychiatry, director of services for teens-at-risk and
professor of child psychiatry. The focus of Dr. Brent's research efforts
has been to understand adolescent depression and suicidal behavior, and
to translate research findings into prevention and treatment.
Dr. Shaffer is a professor of child psychiatry at Columbia University
College of Physicians & Surgeons and director of the division of child
psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Since the 1960s,
when he conducted the first epidemiological study of child and early
adolescent suicide using the psychological autopsy method, his research
has been devoted to developing new prevention and treatment protocols
against teen suicide.
* Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive
Neuroscience ($40,000): Joaquin M. Fuster, M.D., Ph.D., is professor of
psychiatry and biobehavioral science at the University of California,
Los Angeles, where he also serves on the medical school faculty and is a
member of the Brain Research Institute and the Semel Institute for
Neuroscience & Human Behavior. Building on a half-century of seminal
research at UCLA on the functions of the brain's frontal lobe, Dr.
Fuster is currently investigating the relationships between neural
activity and cortical blood flow in working memory.
NARSAD's Goldman-Rakic Prize Selection Committee wrote about Dr. Fuster:
He is a brilliant neuroscientist who has pioneered an understanding of
the brain's cerebral cortex, particularly its mechanisms of cognitive
functions. Dr. Fuster has studied fundamental processes, such as
attention and memory and the integration of information across different
sensory modalities, which are critically altered in mental illness. His
techniques, findings and conceptual ideas, which have been published in
scientific papers and books, have had a profound influence on scholars
worldwide. Dr. Fuster's work also has application to schizophrenia, and
should lead to a more effective understanding, treatment and
rehabilitation of the condition.
* The Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Prize ($40,000): Lorna W. Role, Ph.D., is a
professor of anatomy and cell biology at Columbia University College of
Physicians & Surgeons, where for the past 21 years she has conducted
promising research into the mechanisms of the central nervous system.
Beginning with studies on the physiology and development of neuronal
synapses responsive to nicotine, her research has focused on molecular
mechanisms and neural pathways underlying motivation, memory and mood,
particularly as they relate to schizophrenia.
The Baer Prize recipient is selected by the Lieber Prize recipient, this
year Dr. Lieberman, who wrote about Dr. Role: She has carried out
spectacular work on the combined effects of candidate schizophrenia
genes on the mechanisms that cause the disease and give rise to its
symptoms. She also has looked at novel therapeutic agents based on her
research.
(Additional background on the prize recipients is available on request.)
Through its annual program of prizes for outstanding research
achievement, NARSAD has awarded 43 scientists more than $2 million since
1987.
Besides honoring this year's prize winners, NARSAD's gala will
celebrate the 20th anniversary of the organization's 94-member Scientific
Council, whose president since inception has been Herbert Pardes, M.D.,
president and chief executive officer of New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
The Council consists of exceptional leaders in brain and behavior research,
psychiatry and neuroscience who volunteer their services in selecting
NARSAD's prize winners and research grant recipients. Since 1987, when
NARSAD began awarding research grants, the Council has selected 2,284
scientists in 347 universities and medical centers in the United States and
25 other countries to receive 2,948 research grants worth $199.3 million.
The fund-raising gala will take place at the Pierre Hotel, Fifth Avenue
and 61st Street in Manhattan. Cocktails begin at 6:30 p.m., followed by the
awards program, dinner and dancing. Contributions to NARSAD go entirely to
research, because its administration, overhead and fundraising costs have
been funded by two family foundations. Tickets can be reserved by calling
516-829- 0091. (For further information on the gala, go to
http://www.narsad.org/news/press/pr_2006/pr2006-10-26.html)
In conjunction with the New York gala, NARSAD will host a free public
symposium on some of the latest developments in mental health research. The
symposium takes place on Friday and Saturday, October 27th and 28th, at
Mount Sinai Medical Center's Stern Auditorium. Presentations will be given
by a select group of 15 young investigators funded by NARSAD, who will
discuss their findings in basic science, mood disorders (including
depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders) and schizophrenia
research. Scientists from NARSAD's Scientific Council will provide
commentary about the presentations. (For more details on the symposium, go
to http://www.narsad.org/news/press/pr_2006/pr2006-10-27.html)
SOURCE NARSAD
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