Kutlu Kaya, PhD, postdoctoral associate in the Yale Department of Psychiatry, has been awarded the 2026 ISBD Metabolic Focused Early Mid-Career Travel Award by the International Society for Bipolar Disorders.
The award was presented Sept. 29 at the 28th ISBD Annual Conference in Vancouver. Its purpose is to recognize early- and mid-career researchers and to offset their expenses to attend the conference.
“This award was such well-deserved recognition for Dr. Kaya's contributions to metabolic psychiatry and specifically his groundbreaking research in which he, for the first time, implemented multichannel broadband near-infrared spectroscopy revealing novel findings of altered mitochondrial functioning in the brain in bipolar disorder,” said Hilary P. Blumberg, MD, John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience, and professor of psychiatry, radiology & biomedical imaging, and Child Study Center.
Blumberg is director of the Mood Disorders Research Program at Yale School of Medicine where Kaya is a researcher.
Kaya's research in metabolic psychiatry focuses on brain metabolism and bioenergetics in bipolar disorder. At the Mood Disorders Research Program, he implemented multichannel broadband near-infrared spectroscopy (bNIRS) in bipolar disorder research, a noninvasive optical method that allows hemodynamics and mitochondrial functioning to be measured together in the living human brain. This work has revealed novel findings suggesting altered bioenergetics in the brain in bipolar disorder.
His research interests center on integrating advanced neuroimaging and mitochondrial physiology to better understand the mechanisms underlying mood disorders. He is particularly interested in mitochondrial function as a potential target for intervention, and in how metabolic approaches, including lifestyle and pharmacological strategies, may support brain energy function.
His long-term goal is to translate bNIRS into scalable, portable tools, as well as advanced MR-based technologies that can help guide the detection, prevention, and treatment of mood disorders in clinical settings.