Impact through research
Schizophrenia
Watching a loved one go through their first psychotic episode can be a life-altering, terrifying experience. Schizophrenia robs young people of their chance at a life of independence, leading to decades of challenges for the patient, their family, and friends.
Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder triggered by genetic, epigenetic, developmental, and environmental factors that interfere with brain development and function. Characterized by diverse psychopathology, schizophrenia’s core features are delusions and hallucinations, impaired motivation, social withdrawal, and cognitive impairment (poor performance over a wide range of cognitive functions).
Discovering more about this disease, its genetic origins, and environmental triggers could help doctors diagnose and treat the condition. But preventing the devastating illness in the first place is the ultimate goal of schizophrenia research.
Health Disparities
Systemic racism in the U.S. has shaped the country’s health care and biomedical research systems. We see evidence in the disparities in health outcomes across racial and ethnic groups, an academic research enterprise that doesn’t capitalize on the country’s diverse pool of talent to develop new scientists, and a long and warranted history of mistrust between historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups and the broader biomedical ecosystem.
Maternal & Child Health
Early childhood is a crucial time that sets up children for a lifetime of adaptation to the complexities of human life. During the first five years of life, stress is a risk factor for depression, anxiety disorders, drug abuse, and many other medical conditions. But what if this crucial period of development begins even before birth, in the womb?
The ingredients of early childhood development are the genes that a child inherits and, in a process called epigenetics, the way the environment affects those genes, turning them off or on. The process begins immediately, as soon as the egg is fertilized.
The developing brain is affected deeply by its environment as it grows in its mother’s body.
Mood disorders
Mood disorders such as depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder are relatively common—affecting one in five people—and can be debilitating. Depression involves feelings of sadness, low energy, and often sleep disruptions. Bipolar disorder involves depression with periods of mania, a condition that consists of an overabundance of energy and a conviction that one is on the verge of doing great things. Mania can involve spending sprees, expensive travel, and very grandiose ideas.
These disorders are unique because their effects can be temporary and changeable—people with depression or anxiety aren’t usually permanently depressed or anxious, and people with bipolar disorder swing between the two extremes.
Autism
Raising a child with autism can be a frightening proposition for parents. It can mean a lifetime of managing complicated therapies and medical visits, mounting medical bills and concerns that parents may be providing assistance well into adulthood. People with autism can be college graduates with high IQs who have difficulty socializing, but they may also be nonverbal and require constant care.
Autism spectrum disorder begins early in development and encompasses autistic disorder, Asperger’s syndrome, and childhood dis-integrative disorder. With about one in 100 people affected worldwide, this disorder can manifest in many ways, leaving some highly functioning, with others requiring constant assistance.
Addiction
Addiction is a national public health crisis that can have devastating consequences for patients and their families. The COVID-19 pandemic has only made the situation more desperate. In 2020, the U.S. set a record for the most overdose deaths in a year—more than 93,000 people died of an overdose that year, up almost 30% from the year before.
Addiction treatment is expensive, and techniques and results vary widely. Medications like methadone and buprenorphine can help with opioid addiction. Cognitive behavioral therapy can help people cope with cravings. Group therapy and 12-step programs are popular as well. But people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol often suffer from social, family, and legal problems.
Suicide
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. It is unique among psychiatric disorders in that a short, intense moment of active suicidal crisis may end a person’s life forever—the most severe of consequences. However, there is no treatment that specifically targets suicide.
Instead, therapies focus on the co-existing psychiatric disorders, including depression or schizophrenia, that have made a person feel suicidal.
There is certainly a genetic component to suicide, meaning that it can run in families. Twin studies, however, have shown there is more to it. Scientists believe epigenetics—the interaction of genes and the environment—is at play. Perhaps early trauma or illness can turn on specific genes, increasing a person’s risk of suicide. Until we unravel the biological mechanisms underlying suicide, it’s hard to fully understand, treat, or prevent it.
Aging disorders
People are living longer, and that means more time to enjoy the pleasures of one’s life—spending time with family, practicing beloved hobbies, studying topics of interest. But at the same time, longer lives mean more time for the health problems that come with aging.
Babies born in the U.S. in the year 1900 were expected to live an average of just 47 years. By 1998, newborns were expected to live to an average age of 79. Scientists have predicted that the average life expectancy should continue to rise about 2.5 years per decade.
PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects people who experience a traumatic event beyond ordinary day-to-day stressors. It’s normal to feel anxious and frightened in the moment, but people with PTSD carry that fear—and their body’s reactions to it—long after their trauma.
PTSD can affect people who have experienced violence, lost a loved one, or lived through a disaster, accident, abuse, or even combat. It can be devastating to those who suffer from it, harming their ability to sleep, giving them vivid, terrifying flashback-like memories of their trauma, causing anxiety attacks and making them feel numb to their surroundings. Doctors use antidepressants and talk therapy to treat the disorder.
Not everyone who suffers a trauma will experience PTSD. About seven or eight out of every 100 people will experience PTSD in their lifetime. About 500,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have screened positive for the condition.
Did you miss our free, live webinar on Oct. 23, The Mental Health Crisis: Why Are New Treatments So Hard
September is Suicide Prevention Month, and for good reason. Suicide is a leading cause of death in the United States.
BALTIMORE, MD. — Sept. 4, 2024 — Finding the genes that turn on and off to cause disease isn’t always
Staff Scientist I
Chief Executive Officer and Director
