Entry Date:
October 19, 2004

Psychiatric Disease Initiative

Principal Investigator Edward Scolnick

Co-investigator Janice E Kranz


The underlying biology of psychiatric disease remains largely a mystery. The Broad's Psychiatric Disease Program aims to unravel the molecular basis of psychiatric disease, with the ultimate aim of improving diagnosis, treatment and, if possible, prevention. The primary emphasis is on bipolar disease, schizophrenia, and major depression, illnesses that together affect more than three percent of the human population.

In February 2007, the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research within the Broad Institute’s Psychiatric Disease Program was founded by a grant from the Stanley Medical Research Institute. The Stanley Center is a unique entity at the Broad, in that we are clearly therapeutically focused. Our goal is to create a cohesive small organization that combines the creativity, spontaneity, and brilliant ideas of academia with the focus, structure, and multi-disciplinary approaches of industrial drug discovery. The Stanley Center’s mission is to discover new approaches to the molecular understanding, diagnosis, and pharmacological treatment of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and major depression.

Within the Psychiatric Disease Program and the Stanley Center, major areas of focus include:
Genetic analysis -- A primary emphasis is to identify and characterize the risk genes for psychiatric diseases through linkage and association studies in the human population.

Imaging -- Sophisticated imaging techniques are used to help eludicate brain-based phenotypes in clinical disease.

Translational research -- High-throughput chemical screens are used to identify molecules that modulate important cellular targets related to neural function.

Medicinal chemistry -- Novel medicinal chemistry strategies, supported by computational chemistry, will be used to optimize leads from the various projects to enhance desired pharmacological properties.

Models of disease -- Animal and cellular models for human psychiatric disease are developed and used to investigate the function of candidate genes and pathways and to test lead compounds.