Neuroscience-Based Mental Health Assessment and Prediction (NeuroMAP)- Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (CoBRE)

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​The Center for Neuroscience-based Mental Health Assessment and Prediction (NeuroMAP; Project Number 2P20GM121312-06) provides 5 years of support to continue and expand the scientific infrastructure in Tulsa, OK, to help young investigators develop research projects focused on identifying biological causes and predictors of anxiety and mood disorders.  Tulsa is still an under-developed region for mental health research even though Oklahoma has the second highest rate of mental illness in the country.  The NeuroMAP Center will continue a program to train junior researchers with a pragmatic focus to use neuroscience to improve mental health.

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The Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR) has been awarded a $12.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help researchers predict and treat mood and anxiety disorders.

LIBR serves as the administrative leader of The Center for Neuroscience-based Mental Health Assessment and Prediction (NeuroMAP) and results from a collaborative effort with the University of Tulsa and the University of Oklahoma.

NeuroMAP aims to provide a (a) scientific, (b) operational, and (c) educational infrastructure for innovative neuroscience-based research to use individual differences on several biological levels together with sophisticated statistical approaches to generate clinically meaningful predictions of risk and outcomes for mood, anxiety, and eating disorders.

The LIBR CoBRE center will use a “molecules to symptoms” approach focused on “feeling good,” “feeling bad,” and “brain-body integration” to build computational models aimed to help patients understand how and why they feel depressed or anxious and what interventions might help them feel better.
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Treatment currently is based on trial and error, and understanding of these disorders is in its infancy. Just like blood pressure and cholesterol levels in medicine, identifying objective measures that can predict treatment response and clarify the contributing factors to mood and anxiety disorders can transform how psychiatry is practiced.

​The LIBR CoBRE center's goal is to augment and strengthen institutional biomedical research capacity in the field of mental health through the development of a multidisciplinary, collaborative research program.

“This funding makes possible the collaborative advancement of mental health research for the benefit of all Oklahomans while also laying the groundwork for pivotal future funding in mental health science.” ​- Dr. Martin Paulus, Scientific Director and President ​

The CoBRE Includes:

• A research core of established biomedical research scientists with expertise in mental health, active research laboratories, relevant peer-reviewed funding and demonstrated administrative leadership and mentoring experience.

• Three individual research projects — each supervised by a single junior investigator — that stand alone but share a common thematic scientific focus.

• At least one mentor for each junior investigator, and a development and mentoring plan addressing how the junior investigators will transition to competitive grant support from NIH institutes and centers or other Federal or non-Federal agencies or organizations.
• Support from both an internal and external advisory committee of mentors that consists of nationally and internationally-recognized leaders in the field of mental health.

Specific Aims and Goals of NeuroMAP: 

• ​To provide a state of the art neuroimaging and laboratory infrastructure to conduct biological experiments with multi-level assessments using core facilities
• To provide a mentoring infrastructure to a group of young investigators to conduct studies that identify predictive biological markers and processes for patients with mood or anxiety disorders
• To create a career development infrastructure to accelerate the investigator’s transition from young investigator to established investigator
• To build an operational infrastructure that provides the tools necessary to conduct the research projects, standardize assessments and provide a data repository for future pilot projects.​

Laureate Institute for Brain Research