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Poitras Family Funds 50 Fellowships for Psychiatric Disorder Researchers at MIT

Patricia and James Poitras have established a $10 million fellowship program to support 50 early-career scientists focused on psychiatric disorders research at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research. This initiative aims to create a long-term talent pipeline for addressing complex mental illnesses.

The Poitras Center for Psychiatric Disorders Research will award five two-year fellowships annually for the next decade. This commitment expands the Poitras family's philanthropic efforts in mental health research, which began with a $20 million gift in 2007.

The center bridges neuroscience, psychiatry, and molecular biology to understand and develop novel therapies for conditions like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

Previous investments have supported research in areas such as genome engineering and cognitive neuroscience, leading to breakthroughs like an AI tool for predicting bipolar disorder risk.

The new gift directly supports PhD students and postdocs, recognizing the precarious nature of federal funding for mental health research.

The inaugural cohort of five fellows will pursue diverse projects, including differentiating anxiety subtypes and studying fear memory circuits.

Other projects investigate the gut-brain connection for mental health and exercise's mood-boosting effects.

The Poitras family's total support for mental health research at MIT now exceeds $100 million, aiming to accelerate discoveries and improve treatments.

AI-samenvatting op basis van de bron.