NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The Broad Institute's Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research will use a $50 million gift from the Stanley Medical Research Institute to fund its science, which focuses on the molecular and genetic underpinnings of schizophrenia, bipolar disease, and other mental illnesses.
The center was launched in 2007 with a 10-year, $100 million SMRI grant to fund genetic studies of mental illnesses that would pave the way for new treatments for patients. This grant will provide $10 million per year over five additional years, supporting the center through 2022, the Broad Institute said Tuesday.
"The renewed support of the Stanley Medical Research Institute underscores the remarkable progress we have made in just a few short years in unraveling the genetics of psychiatric illnesses," Stanley Center Director and Broad Institute faculty member Edward Scolnick said in a statement.
"The Stanley Center brings together scientists with different areas of expertise to work together toward a common goal: uncovering the molecular mechanisms of mental illness to bring about better treatment," Broad Institute Director Eric Lander said in a statement. "Genomic tools are accelerating the pace of discovery in psychiatric disease research and the additional support of the Stanley Medical Research Institute ensures that this progress will continue for many years to come."
The Stanley Center has discovered several genes that confer risk of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and have found that these diseases share common risk genes.