April 3, 2008

David Amaral, UC Davis professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, has been selected by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) to receive its prestigious Distinguished Investigator Award.
 
NARSAD, the world’s leading charity dedicated to funding research on psychiatric disorders, will provide Amaral a one-year grant of $100,000 to advance his research on the causes of autism.
 
Amaral is one of 11 outstanding scientists who are receiving NARSAD’s 2008 Distinguished Investigator Award, a highly competitive grant program for investigators of brain and psychiatric disorders who have established themselves as leaders in their fields.
 
Amaral is seeking to corroborate evidence implicating antibodies in some mothers as a possible cause of autism in their children. The role of the maternal immune system in fetal neurodevelopment is an active area of research. The presence of anti-fetal antibodies raises the possibility that a subset of autism cases may be caused by transfer of an antibody directed against the fetal brain during development in utero.
 
In a remarkable preliminary finding, Amaral and colleagues have tried to see the effects of such an antibody using monkeys, and found that the treated offspring had whole-body movements that suggested some movements seen in certain children with autism. The investigators plan to determine what proteins are the targets of the antibodies. The hope is that this research could help identify risk factors and possible preventive strategies for at least one type of autism.
 
“Dr. Amaral exemplifies the kind of individual we try to single out for the Distinguished Investigator Award: an outstanding scientist, representing the very best in the field, with an important body of work behind him and currently pursuing innovative and promising research,” said Geoff Birkett, president of NARSAD.
 
“The work of each of this year’s Distinguished Investigators is certain to advance the state of knowledge about serious psychiatric disorders,” added Herbert Pardes, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, who is also president of NARSAD’s Scientific Council. The council, composed of 103 prominent neuroscientists, reviews the research proposals NARSAD receives and annually recommends grants.
 
“The work of Dr. Amaral is extremely impressive, and like that of our other 10 Distinguished Investigator awardees has very real potential to produce insights that will lead to new approaches to treatment for serious mental illness,” said Jack Barchas, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and chair of the committee that selected the winning proposals.
 
NARSAD’s 2008 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 childhood developmental disorders, as well as other disorders affecting adults and children.
 
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, or who are poised to test an innovative new idea that has the potential to make a significant advance in a given area of research.
 
NARSAD 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 — such as post-doctoral fellows, advanced standing medical residents and assistant professors — to generate pilot data necessary for larger grants.
 
NARSAD raises funds to advance research on the causes, treatment and prevention of psychiatric disorders. Since it began giving grants in 1987, as the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, NARSAD has awarded more than $230 million to nearly 3,400 research grants to 2,700 scientists in 418 institutions in the U.S. and 26 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 www.narsad.org.