It has never been more difficult for early career scientists to secure research funding, particularly for projects seeking to apply recent advances in basic science to improve patient care. In response to this challenge, an alumnus has made an anonymous gift to support translational neuroscience research by Yale psychiatry residents.
The gift established three one-year research fellowships in memory of Thomas Detre, MD, an internationally renowned academic psychiatrist and distinguished alumnus of Yale's Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Detre left Yale in 1973 to join the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he served as chair of psychiatry, senior vice chancellor of health sciences, and dean.
In response to the number and strength of project proposals to the Detre Fellowship program, John Krystal, MD, the Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research and psychiatry department chair, created a fourth award named the McNeil Fellowship.
The Detre and McNeil Fellowships will provide up to $30,000 per recipient in support of the translational research endeavors of residents through the Neuroscience Research Training Program.
Submissions were reviewed by members of the Detre/McNeil Award committee, which included Dr. Krystal; Robert Malison, MD; Marina Picciotto, PhD; Christopher Pittenger, MD, PhD; and Gerard Sanacora, MD, PhD.
2013-2014 Detre/McNeil Fellowship Awards
Detre Fellowship
Recipient: Youngsun Cho, MD, PhD
Project: "Integrating Reward and Executive Function: Neural Networks Involved in a Spatial Working Memory Task Performed Under Rewarding Contexts"
Research Mentor: Alan Anticevic, PhD
Detre Fellowship
Recipient: Daniel Moreno De Luca, MD, MSc
Project: "Developing the Framework for Neurogenetic Psychiatry Clinics"
Research Mentor: Matthew State, MD, PhD
McNeil Fellowship
Recipient: Alan Lewis, MD, PhD
Project: "Interactions Between Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and CaM Kinase II"
Research Mentor: Marina Picciotto, PhD
Detre Fellowship
Recipient: Albert Powers, MD, PhD
Project: "Conditioning Illusory Percepts: Testing a Predictive Coding Model of Hallucinations"
Research Mentor: Philip Corlett, PhD