Newswise — Dolores Malaspina, M.D., MSciPH, Chairman of NYU Medical Center's Department of Psychiatry, 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. Malaspina with a one-year grant of $100,000 to examine how prenatal stress can influence the emotional health of offspring.
Dr. Malaspina, who is also the Anita Steckler and Joseph Steckler Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine, 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. Dr. Malaspina has previously been recognized by NARSAD as the recipient of two "Independent Investigator" awards and has served as the mentor for a half dozen junior investigators who have been honored with "Young Investigator" awards.
Dr. Malaspina will apply her 2007 NARSAD "Distinguished Investigator" Award to specifically examine the effects of fetal exposure to the 1967 "Six Day War" on the mental health outcomes of offspring born in Jerusalem. She will examine the specific month by month effects on the risk for different psychiatric outcomes, based on the month of pregnancy in which the war stress occurred. Other research in this birth cohort, funded to Dr. Malaspina by the National Institute of Mental Health, is focused on the effects of paternal age on the risks for schizophrenia. The current study will examine effects for an array of conditions, including major depression, autism, and bipolar disorder.
"This grant is funding an exciting project by a world class investigator. It was received with enormous enthusiasm by the reviewers who were evaluating a large number of proposals from extremely talented researchers," said Jack D. Barchas, M.D., Chairman and Psychiatrist in Chief, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College.
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.
"The work of each of this year's Distinguished Investigators will advance the state of knowledge about serious psychiatric disorders," said Herbert Pardes, M.D., president and CEO of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, who is also president of NARSAD's Scientific Council. The council, comprised of 94 prominent neuroscientists, reviews the research proposals NARSAD receives and recommends grants.
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 innovative scientific research on neuro-psychiatric 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 http://www.narsad.org.
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