University of Oxford team secures major grant to investigate Bipolar Disorder

The grants are part of BD²’s second installment of Discovery Research grants, totalling nearly $18 million (around £13.5 million), aiming to examine the key mechanisms of Bipolar Disorder.

The University of Oxford team is one of several multidisciplinary teams of scientists and clinicians to each receive grants of up to $4.5 million (£3.4 million) over three years to undertake targeted, innovative research that deepens  understanding of Bipolar Disorder.

Professor Paul Harrison, will lead a team including Dr Arne Mould and Dr Nicola Hall in the Department of Psychiatry, alongside Dr Becky Carlyle in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics and Professor Dame Carol Robinson in Chemistry.

They will investigate the role of voltage-gated calcium channels in bipolar disorder. Using a variety of innovative molecular approaches, the team will determine the function of these proteins in the causes and development of bipolar disorder and assess their potential as drug targets.

Professor Harrison said:

“I am excited to lead this innovative multidisciplinary team to explore the role of calcium channels in bipolar disorder. There have long been tantalizing clues about their importance, and the time is right to make significant advances.

Our work will investigate how they contribute to the disorder and, particularly, whether and how they can be novel treatment targets. We look forward to joining the BD² community and working together towards achieving this goal.”

Other grantees include teams at the University of California, Berkeley, Mass General Brigham and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

“The Discovery Research program is a cornerstone of BD²’s comprehensive efforts to improve the exploration of causal mechanisms of bipolar disorder,” said Cara Altimus, Managing Director for BD² and managing director at the Milken Institute Science Philanthropy Accelerator for Research and Collaboration. “This second round of funding includes projects with direct links to programs throughout BD², building the scientific basis for new diagnostic and treatment approaches.”

Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Chair, BD² Research Programs, said:

“This program continues to champion innovative thinking and creative strategies from a variety of teams and institutions to better understand bipolar disorder and lift up new opportunities for treatment.”

BD² also announced the opening of a third round of funding opportunities for the Discovery Research program, inviting scientists across disciplines to learn more about and apply for funding to undertake ground-breaking research into the genetic, molecular, cellular, circuit, and behavioural mechanisms of bipolar disorder.

BD² has dedicated $85 million in funding to research that accelerates scientific understanding of bipolar disorder and advances clinical care through cross-disciplinary collaboration, data sharing, and real-time learning.

Learn more about the projects and the teams who have been successful in securing the Discovery Research grants.