Ten HBI faculty members were recently awarded HBI Bipolar Disorder Seed Grants! The Harvard Brain Science Initiative (HBI) Bipolar Disorder Seed Grant Program supports research relevant to the basic understanding and eventual treatment of bipolar disorder. Supported by a generous gift from the Dauten Family Foundation, this program funds innovative, visionary projects with new ideas and approaches that otherwise may not attract seed funding from conventional sources. To date the program has awarded 39 grants totaling approximately $4M, to laboratories with diverse areas of expertise spread out across different campuses of Harvard University and its affiliated hospitals.

Adam Cohen, Harvard University
Impact of estrous cycle on neocortical dynamics in bipolar disorder

Fei Du and Dost Öngür, McLean Hospital
Correcting brain energy metabolism abnormalities in first-episode bipolar disorder using nicotinamide riboside

Corey Harwell, Harvard Medical School
Dissecting the development and diversity of septal nuclei circuits implicated in bipolar disorder

Emma Knowles, Boston Children’s Hospital
Examining the impact of voltage-gated calcium channel genes on risk for bipolar disorder in early-onset bipolar trios

Maria Lehtinen, Boston Children’s Hospital
Elucidating the role of serotonergic signaling at the choroid plexus in bipolar disorder

Bernardo Sabatini, Harvard Medical School
Elucidating the role of distinct cell types of the dorsal raphe nucleus in bipolar disorder

David Sinclair, Harvard Medical School
Copine 2, a novel risk gene for bipolar disorder

Jordan Smoller, Massachusetts General Hospital
Understanding the role of a novel genetic variant at the CACNA1C gene in bipolar disorder

Nao Uchida, Harvard University
Competition between multiple dopamine systems as a model of bipolar disorders