Stanley Medical Research Institute
/OVERVIEW: The Stanley Medical Research Institute (SMRI) only funds treatment trials for drugs targeting bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. It also maintains the Stanley Brain Collection Tissue Repository.
IP TAKE: According the Stanley Medical Research Institute’s website, “[t]he neuroscience revolution has brought with it great opportunities for increased understanding of brain diseases such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and SMRI has been on the leading edge of this exciting research.” This funder is not affiliated with for-profit drug manufacturing. It mainly supports research on repurposed drugs that have lost patent protection. Unfortunately, Stanley no longer accepts applications “due to limited funding.” However, Stanley is accessible and transparent, and provides contact information for its staff members on its website. Reach out with questions about current priorities at any time.
PROFILE: Created in 1989, the Stanley Medical Research Institute funds “research on the causes of, and treatments for, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.” In addition to funding research on psychiatric medications, the institute provides ongoing support to the Stanley Neurovirology Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University and the Stanley Program for Epidemiology, Prevention, and Treatment of Schizophrenia a consortium of laboratories around the world that study the roles gene-environment interactions in the development of mental illnesses. It also maintains a “close relationship” with the Treatment Advocacy Center, which helps eliminate barriers to psychiatric treatment and care. The institute has supported research in more than 30 countries.
Grants for Mental Health, Brain and Cell Research
The institute funds mental health-related grants through its Treatment Trials and Drug Development Program, which seeks to test the efficacy of drugs that pharmaceutical companies want nothing to do with, including drugs that have lost patent protection, repurposed drugs, and off-label indications.
Examples of funded studies include treatment studies of lithium, Olanzapine, Risperidone, Lamotrigine and Tamoxifen. Sample sizes for these studies have ranged from 2 to 1500.
Grants have supported researchers and teams at institutions including the University Hospitals of Cleveland, Israel’s Herzog Memorial Hospital, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and Yale University School of Medicine, to name a few.
A major component of the institute’s work involves the Stanley Brain Collection, which lends samples of brain tissue from the institutes Tissue Repository to researchers around the world. Sub-groups of this collection include the Depression Collection, the Parietal Collection and the Array Collection, which contains tissue specimens affected with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders, as well as some that are unaffected by either disease.
Important Grant Details:
This funder’s grants range from $15,000 to over $2 million.
A significant number of grants support multi-year projects and investigations.
Grantmaking appears to go mainly to universities and research institutes located in the U.S.
The foundation’s tissue repository lends materials to researchers around the world.
The Stanley Medical Research Institute no longer accepts applications for funding. Its website indicates it has “limited funding” at this time. Prospective grantseekers may check back periodically for for updates. This funder provides phone numbers and email addresses for its staff members on its website. General inquiries may be sent to info@stanleyresearch.org.
PEOPLE:
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