The 2007 Staglin Family Music Festival Award for Schizophrenia Research, a 250,000 dollars grant, has been awarded by NARSAD: The Mental Health Research Association to Akira Sawa, M.D., Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Dr. Sawa is an associate professor of psychiatry in the university’s Department of Neuroscience and director of its Program in Molecular Psychiatry. He is leading a pioneering effort to generate a powerful new mouse model for schizophrenia using a technique called in utero gene transfer that he has previously developed.

Dr. Sawa recognized in 2005 that a mutant gene dubbed DISC1 — an acronym for “Disrupted in Schizophrenia-1″ — is involved in cerebral cortex development, and at that time proposed that loss of DISC1 function might underlie neurodevelopmental dysfunction in schizophrenia. In more recent work, he has sought to develop a mouse model for schizophrenia that would enable his research team to simultaneously modulate the expression of this and other genes. This is important because prior work has shown that schizophrenia is likely the product of multiple genetic factors and environmental risks.

Using in utero gene transfer, Dr. Sawa and colleagues have already succeeded in suppressing DISC1 in laboratory mice. These rodents showed behavioral deficits relevant to schizophrenia once they reached young adulthood. NARSAD’s Staglin Award to Dr. Sawa will enable him to attempt to develop mice with modulations in multiple genetic susceptibility factors — not only in DISC1 but also, for instance, in a gene called Neurgelin-1. Like DISC1, products of the Neureglin-1 gene are preferentially expressed in pyramidal neurons of the cerebral cortex.

Cortical pathology is believed to play a role in schizophrenia, but its molecular basis, Dr. Sawa notes, remains unclear. At the same time, Dr. Sawa says, “Accumulating evidence suggests that the etiology of schizophrenia involves some deficits during neurodevelopment.” By producing a line of model mice with neurodevelopmental disturbances in the frontal cortex’s pyramidal neurons, he hopes to arrive at a powerful new model for schizophrenia in the developing, or adolescent, brain.

Schizophrenia affects about 1 percent of the world’s population, typically emerging in late adolescence or early adulthood and lasting a lifetime. It is considered the most complex of brain disorders by neuroscientists, and discovering its causes and cure is among the greatest challenges facing the field of mental health research.

“Dr. Sawa is a pioneer, having demonstrated that changes in the DISC1 gene that have been found in some families with major mental illnesses cause a defect in fundamental aspects of brain development,” said Daniel R. Weinberger, M.D., chief of the Clinical Brain Disorders Branch of the Intramural Research Program and director of the Genes, Cognition and Psychosis Program at the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Weinberg, who is a member of NARSAD’s Scientific Council and head of the Staglin Award selection committee, added: “Dr. Sawa is developing animal models based on these effects, which may be critical for the development of new treatments based on the causes of these disorders.”

NARSAD’s Staglin Prize, now in its third year, is earmarked for an early-career scientist whose research is uncovering the causes of schizophrenia and leading to improved treatments for this devastating brain disorder. Dr. Sawa’s project was chosen from applications received from scientists around the world. The award is donated to NARSAD by the Staglin Family Music Festival for Mental Health, an annual event hosted by Shari and Garen Staglin on their Napa Valley vineyard to raise funds for mental health research.

“We feel that genetics is the key to at least half the puzzle of schizophrenia and other brain disorders, and are excited about Dr. Sawa’s work on new mouse models of how schizophrenia arises in the developing brain,” said Shari Staglin.

“This award is crucial to expanding my experimental system for testing how developmental risks lead to schizophrenia-associated pathophysiology in adult brains,” said Dr. Sawa, who received his M.D. from the University of Tokyo, and did his clinical and research training in psychiatry at University of Tokyo Hospital. Subsequently, he moved to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neuroscience, and later became an assistant professor in the departments of psychiatry and neuroscience, leading to his appointment as associate professor.

Dr. Sawa’s innovative work has twice before been recognized by NARSAD. In 2002 and 2004, he received the organization’s Young Investigator Award. NARSAD is the world’s largest donor-supported organization dedicated to supporting innovative scientific research to improve the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of severe mental illnesses. Since 1987, NARSAD has awarded $215 million to 2,477 scientists at 415 universities and medical research institutions throughout the United States and in 25 other countries.

Through its competitive grant programs - for Young Investigators, Independent Investigators and Distinguished Investigators - NARSAD funds the most promising research by many of the most outstanding scientists in the world. NARSAD funding for Young Investigators helps many talented young scientists like Dr. Sawa launch their research careers and frequently opens doors to larger federal and private grants.

Originally founded as the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, NARSAD strives to help those suffering from brain and behavior disorders build a better future and lead productive lives by increasing the funding available for psychiatric research. The extensive research NARSAD supports �” on such conditions as depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, eating disorders, autism and many other childhood and adult disorders — is made possible by the generosity and commitment of thousands of donors around the country. NARSAD also is assisted in this effort by its Scientific Council, an all-volunteer group of 94 leaders in the key disciplines of psychiatry, genetics, molecular biology, epidemiology and neuroscience, which rigorously reviews and recommends research proposals for grant support.