mental illness

Inside the NIH Brain Bank

IRP Group Supports Neuropsychiatric Research

gloved hands holding a brain

More than half of Americans are registered organ donors, signed up to gift organs like kidneys and livers to patients in need of a transplant when they die. However, far fewer people have signed up to donate their brains to biomedical research upon their deaths. At NIH, the Human Brain Collection Core (HBCC) acts as a steadfast steward of this precious and scarce scientific resource, giving the brains of deceased donors a second life as a key driver of life-changing neuropsychiatric research.

Nearly 60 million adults in the U.S. suffer from a psychiatric disorder, and examining the brains of these individuals is indispensable for determining the molecular mechanisms underlying these diseases. Consequently, the HBCC provides invaluable assistance to scientists seeking to improve our understanding and treatment of such conditions. In recognition of World Mental Health Day today, let’s take a glimpse into how the Core is accelerating investigations into the mass of gray and white matter that makes each of us who we are. 

A New Tool in the Battle Against Depression

Annual Lecture Details Revolutionary Treatment’s Bench-to-Bedside Journey

depressed man in a dark room

As hard as IRP scientists work in the lab, they work equally hard to make sure their findings have a real-world impact on patients’ lives. The pathway from the lab to the clinic, though, is rarely straightforward — something IRP senior investigator Carlos Zarate Jr, M.D., knows first-hand from his game-changing innovations in treating depression.

Dr. Zarate closed this year’s NIH Research Festival on September 22 by describing that odyssey in the 16th annual Philip S. Chen, Jr., Ph.D. Distinguished Lecture on Innovation and Technology Transfer. Named in honor of the former IRP investigator who established NIH’s Office of Technology Transfer in 1986, the annual event celebrates important IRP innovations that have moved beyond the boundaries of NIH.

New Neurons Push Away PTSD

IRP Researchers Explore How the Brain Shrugs Off Severe Stress

military man in therapy session

Deep within the brain, a structure called the hippocampus serves as a hub where memory and emotion collide, helping us to learn what not to do if we want to stay safe. However, for the 12 million people in the U.S. with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), those self-preservation instincts kick into overdrive, with severe consequences for quality of life.

June is PTSD Awareness Month, which draws attention to an often-debilitating condition that occurs when people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event or period in their lives continue to experience severe depression and anxiety for months or years afterward. While there are a variety of medications and therapies that can help people with PTSD, not everyone benefits from those treatments. Before scientists can develop additional treatment options, they must learn more about the biological roots of the condition, so IRP senior investigator Heather Cameron, Ph.D., is doing her part by examining how stress affects the hippocampus, one of the few brain regions where new neurons are continuously born.

Science by the Numbers: Modeling Complex Biological Processes

computer microchip with binary code

Science is a process of trial and error. Most successful research publications are preceded by at least a few false starts and perhaps weeks or even months of tinkering to get experiments to work. For IRP senior investigator Carson Chow, Ph.D., this process of testing and throwing out one potential solution after another is an essential part of his research, so much so that he may go through thousands of iterations before arriving at one that works. However, rather than test each approach himself, he leverages the IRP’s considerable computing power to considerably accelerate the process of sorting the wheat from the chaff.

Schizophrenia and Brain Imaging in the 1980s, '90s, and 2000s

Karen Berman

"I felt that seeing this dissolution of everything that makes us who and what we are in patients really told me a lot about what makes us human. At the same time I felt very frustrated that there was so little that we could do to help our patients with severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia."

– Karen Berman, M.D.