The team has been awarded a BD²: Breakthrough Discoveries grant to look at the role of voltage-gated calcium channels in Bipolar Disorder. The grants are part of BD²'s second installment of Discovery Research grants, totalling nearly $18 million (around £13.5 million), aiming to examine the key mechanisms of Bipolar Disorder.
The University of Oxford team is one of several multidisciplinary teams of scientists and clinicians to each receive grants of up to $4.5 million (£3.4 million) over three years to undertake targeted, innovative research that deepens understanding of Bipolar Disorder.
Professor Paul Harrison (department of Psychiatry) will lead a team including Dr Arne Mould and Dr Nicola Hall in the Department of Psychiatry, alongside Dr Becky Carlyle in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics and Professor Dame Carol Robinson in Chemistry.
They will investigate the role of voltage-gated calcium channels in bipolar disorder. Using a variety of innovative molecular approaches, the team will determine the function of these proteins in the causes and development of bipolar disorder and assess their potential as drug targets.
Professor Harrison said: ‘I am excited to lead this innovative multidisciplinary team to explore the role of calcium channels in bipolar disorder. There have long been tantalizing clues about their importance, and the time is right to make significant advances. Our work will investigate how they contribute to the disorder and, particularly, whether and how they can be novel treatment targets. We look forward to joining the BD² community and working together towards achieving this goal.’
Read more about the projects and the teams who have been successful in securing the Discovery Research grants here.