Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Announces 2025 Klerman & Freedman Prize Winners for Exceptional Early-Career Mental Health Research
NEW YORK (July 29, 2025) — The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) is pleased to announce the recipients of its 2025 Klerman & Freedman Prizes, honoring exceptional clinical and basic research in mental illness by early-career scientists. The prizes are awarded annually to recognize the work of outstanding scientists who have been supported by the Foundation’s Young Investigator Grants Program.
“This year’s Klerman and Freedman Prize recipients exemplify the talent and commitment driving the future of mental health research,” said Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D., President & CEO of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. “Their groundbreaking work expands our understanding of the brain and holds promise for developing more effective and personalized treatments. We are proud to support these extraordinary scientists at this pivotal point in their careers.”
2025 Klerman Prize for Exceptional Clinical Research
Joseph J. Taylor, M.D., Ph.D.
Mass General Brigham / Harvard Medical School
“The Klerman Prize is a celebration of community—of the family members, friends, colleagues, mentors, mentees, administrators, patients, study participants, and funders who play a role in good science. I am deeply humbled, and I can’t wait to pay it forward.”
Dr. Taylor has been a core faculty member of the Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School since the Center launched in 2020. He is appointed as an Associate Psychiatrist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and as an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on deriving and testing brain stimulation targets for psychiatric illness. He derives targets with network mapping, a method that leverages the human connectome (a wiring diagram of the human brain) to examine the connectivity patterns of brain lesion locations or brain stimulation coordinates that causally modify neuropsychiatric symptoms. Dr. Taylor tests these targets in clinical trials using invasive and non-invasive brain circuit interventions.
Honorable Mentions – Klerman Prize
Ryan T. Ash, M.D., Ph.D.
Stanford University / University of California San Francisco
Dr. Ash is a psychiatrist and clinician-scientist, whose primary current research goal is to help develop novel methods to rebalance neural circuit stability and plasticity in deep-brain areas to enhance recovery from neuropsychiatric illness. His work is grounded in the new field of transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS), a noninvasive technique that allows focal neuromodulation of the deep-brain areas like the amygdala, striatum, and hippocampus most implicated in psychiatric disease. He is well positioned to lead the translation of this technique into a new generation of circuit-based therapeutics. His clinical specialty is in functional neurological disorder (FND), and he currently directs a FND tertiary-referral practice in the Stanford Neuropsychiatry Clinic. He is starting his independent research lab in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry in Fall 2025.
Nathaniel G. Harnett, Ph.D.
McLean Hospital / Harvard Medical School
Dr. Harnett is a neuroscientist whose research is focused on understanding the brain basis for why some people are more likely to develop stress-related disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), after trauma. His current work leverages magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques—including functional MRI, structural MRI, and diffusion weighted imaging—to identify multimodal neural signatures of PTSD susceptibility in the acute aftermath of trauma exposure. The overarching emphasis of Dr. Harnett’s work is on elucidating neural circuitry linked to acute and long-term development of post-traumatic syndromes and identifying robust and generalizable neurobiological targets for early intervention and treatment. The goal of this research is to develop predictive and preventative neuroscience-based techniques to reduce the prevalence of trauma and stress-related disorders.
2025 Freedman Prize for Exceptional Basic Research
Long Li, Ph.D.
Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
“As a young investigator, I am incredibly honored to receive the Freedman Prize and deeply motivated by the Foundation’s commitment to supporting basic science that lays the groundwork for better treatments. This recognition reinforces our mission to uncover the neural and molecular underpinnings of depression and PTSD, with the goal of translating these insights into more precise and effective therapies.”
Dr. Li’s lab focuses on developing novel animal models for neuropsychiatric disorders, such as depression and PTSD, to uncover new molecular targets and therapeutic avenues. Specifically, they investigate neuronal molecular biomarkers modulated by innovative drugs for treating depression and anxiety, as well as seek to develop proactive coping strategies for stress. Their goal is to pinpoint which neurons and molecules can be targeted to alleviate disease symptoms. By elucidating the cellular mechanisms of therapeutic drugs in the brain, the lab aims to enhance drug specificity and minimize adverse effects. It is hoped that this foundational understanding will ultimately guide the design of optimized treatments with improved efficacy and tolerability.
Honorable Mentions – Freedman Prize
Hermany Munguba, Ph.D.
University College London
After completing his Ph.D. at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, Dr. Munguba’s curiosity about the brain evolved into a sense of urgency to understand the circuit basis of psychiatric disorders. During his postdoctoral training, Dr. Munguba’s experience in neuronal cell diversity enabled him to merge his knowledge in circuit connectivity to his host labs’ expertise in stress-related disorders and neuromodulation. Today, his research vision is to advance new discoveries at the intersection of basic and translational neuroscience, aiming to identify molecular, cellular, and circuit pathways involved in the onset and relief of symptoms common to major depressive disorder. His research aims to close the gaps between foundational neuroscience and clinical application, ultimately guiding the development of novel, disease-modifying treatments targeting cell types and circuits related to symptom-specific pathology.
Zachary Pennington, Ph.D.
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai / University of British Columbia
Dr. Pennington’s research focuses on understanding the alterations in brain function responsible for anxiety and stress-related disorders, with the goal of advancing novel treatments for these conditions. To pursue this goal, he uses cutting-edge tools for visualizing how neural circuits change in response to stressful life experiences and manipulating these circuits to modify their influence on behavior. The hope is that by identifying the specific brain circuits involved in anxiety and stress, more targeted treatments can be discovered. Dr. Pennington is also a contributor to several open-source projects, helping make modern scientific tools accessible to all. With the help of BBRF support, Dr. Pennington defined a novel brain region’s role in vulnerability to stressful life events and is continuing to identify specific cell types within this brain region that might be targeted in conditions like PTSD. Dr. Pennington will be opening his own lab at the University of British Columbia in January 2026.
About the Klerman & Freedman Prizes
Established in memory of pioneering psychiatrists Gerald L. Klerman, M.D., and Daniel X. Freedman, M.D., these prizes recognize outstanding research conducted by recipients of BBRF Young Investigator grants. Winners are selected by committees of the Foundation’s Scientific Council, a group of 192 leading experts across neuroscience and psychiatry.
About the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) awards research grants to develop improved treatments, cures, and methods of prevention for mental illness. These illnesses include addiction, ADHD, anxiety, autism, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, depression, eating disorders, OCD, PTSD, and schizophrenia, as well as research on suicide prevention. Since 1987, the Foundation has awarded more than $462 million to fund more than 5,600 leading scientists around the world. 100% of every dollar donated for research is invested in research. BBRF operating expenses are covered by separate foundation grants. BBRF is the producer of the Emmy® nominated public television series Healthy Minds with Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein, which aims to remove the stigma of mental illness and demonstrate that with help, there is hope.
Source:
Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
Contact:
Myrna Manners, Manners Dotson Group,
718-986-7255, mmanners@mannersdotson.com
