With the help of a Young Investigator Grant, Scientific Council Member Mark S. George, M.D. developed Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), a new kind of non-invasive brain stimulation as an alternative for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in treatment-resistant depression. In 1995, unable to get NIH funding for TMS, a NARSAD Young Investigator Grant allowed the work to gather important clinical information and served as "bridge" funding to set the stage for the emergence of this industry.

In 2008, Foundation Scientific Council Member Mary-Claire King, Ph.D. from the University of Washington—widely known for her discovery of a mutation in a gene she named BRCA1 that led to powerful breast cancer diagnostics— led research teams in the discovery of rare genetic mutations found in high volumes in people with schizophrenia.

Carlos A. Zarate, Jr., M.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health used a 2005 Foundation Independent Investigator Grant to further studies on what is being heralded by experts as the biggest change in the treatment of depression in the last 50 years. The goal of his project was to develop new, improved and more rapidly-acting therapies for treatment-resistant major depression.

Karl Deisseroth, M.D., Ph.D., used his 2005 NARSAD Young Investigator Grant to develop optogenetics, a new technology that has revolutionized systems neuroscience by providing precise control over brain circuitry in awake, behaving animals. Optogenetics involves the use of light to rapidly open and close the membrane channels that make neurons fire and cease firing and allows for observation of the effects on behavior.

Francis S. Lee, M.D., Ph.D., of Weill Cornell Medical College, was the recipient of two Foundation Young Investigator Grants (in 2005 and 2002) that supported research on growth factors called NGF (nerve growth factor) and BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which support the birth and growth of new brain cells. Dr. Lee wanted to see if there were alternate ways to activate these growth factor receptors in order to identify novel targets for next-generation therapies for a broad range of mental illnesses.