In 2000, Foundation Distinguished Investigator Grantees, Paul Greengard, Ph.D., and Eric R. Kandel, M.D., were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their important contributions to understanding the molecular changes in the brain that underlie memory and mood. Dr. Kandel’s research has focused on what happens in the brain when memories are formed, while Dr. Greengard’s research focuses on what happens inside a neuron after a signal is received.

In 1998, Bruce S. McEwen, Ph.D., received Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Grant funding to support his quest to understand what happens when stress impacts and seems to “damage” the brain. While his research confirmed that stress does impact the brain and can cause shrinkage in the hippocampus region, for example, he also found that the impact is not necessarily permanent “damage.” He discovered the brain’s inherent capacity to adapt and remodel its architecture. His groundbreaking work effectively established what is now known as “neuroplasticity” in the field.

With support from a 1996 Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Grant, Eric J. Nestler, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues identified a novel transcription factor that determines the long-lasting consequences of stress and of several classes of antipsychotic medications on the brain. Transcription factors are proteins that control which genes are turned on or off in the genome. The team found that first and second-generation antipsychotic medications induce the transcription factor, DeltaFosB, in several brain regions including regions of the prefrontal cortex.

In 1991, Foundation Scientific Council Member, Helen Mayberg, M.D., pioneered the use of positron emission tomography (PET) brain scanning technology to study the neurology of depression. With the support of a Young Investigator Grant, her first grant funding received, she was able to identify common brain networks across different depression subtypes. She went on to develop an important model of depression based on her findings and opened a new frontier in brain research.

In our second year of grant-giving, 1988, Dr. Herbert Meltzer received a Distinguished Investigator Grant to test his idea that clozapine might be a good option as a “second generation” antipsychotic medication in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia. Clozapine was approved for use in patients with resistant schizophrenia in 1989 by the FDA and led to the development of a new class of “atypical” antipsychotics that effectively treat millions of patients today.