The Dolby family is a longtime supporter of UC San Francisco. In 2015, the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund gifted UCSF’s Department of Psychiatry $20 million to support research on mood disorders and treatment programs. Now Dagmar Dolby and her son David are donating another $20 million to the university to launch the UCSF Dolby Family Center for Mood Disorders. Faculty and clinics under this new center’s umbrella will be housed in either of two state-of-the-art buildings under construction on the Mission Bay Campus: the Child, Teen and Family Center, which will also house the Department of Psychiatry, and the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Neurosciences Building.
(Image courtesy of wikimedia)
In an article for the UCSF News Center, UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood, MBBS stated that UCSF Dolby Family Center for Mood Disorders “will build on our exceptionally strong basic neuroscience program by expanding cutting-edge research, growing our clinical and training efforts, and promoting innovative and collaborative science.” He went on to explain that this Center will facilitate collaborations between UCSF experts in psychiatry, neurology, and neurosurgery.
The center will be an integral part of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. The 270,000-square-foot Joan and Sanford I. Weill Neurosciences Building is scheduled to open in 2020. The building will bring together psychiatry bench lab research with other basic neurosciences research. Combined with the nearby Sandler Neurosciences Center, Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Hall, and a forthcoming home for psychiatry clinical care and research, the neuroscience complex at UCSF Mission Bay will become one of the largest in the world.
The Dolby’s initial gift was instrumental in recruiting and supporting the work of Andrew Krystal, MD. Over the past two year, in collaboration with Bruce Miller, MD, director of the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, Krystal built a research program focused on testing the hypothesis that mood disorders can be the first manifestation of dementia. This project may improve scientists’ understanding of the alterations in the brain circuit function associated with mood disorders such as depression and bipolar.
Krystal has also made great strides in establishing clinical and research programs around emerging treatments for mood disorders. This includes repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and ketamine infusion therapy, the first rapidly acting antidepressant treatment.
The Dolby’s family’s latest investment in the university will allow for the establishment of the Dolby Family Precision Medicine in Mood Disorders Program, which will focus initially on treatment-resistant depression. In early 2019, Krystal is preparing to launch a first-of-its-kind clinical trial that will help illuminate the biological underpinnings of mood and anxiety disorders. It will also support the development of a personalized therapy aimed at addressing the dysfunctional brain circuit activity underlying these conditions.
“The potential impact of this work and the role of the Dolby family’s generosity cannot be overstated,” Krystal noted in the same UCSF News Center article. “This work will help us obtain data that will shine a light on the brain circuitry involved and enable us to develop precise and less invasive treatments for patients. This is an enormous opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of how specific brain circuits influence mood and behavior in an effort to create targeted and novel therapeutic approaches. It will set the groundwork for taking a truly precision medicine approach to mood disorders.”
|
RELATED ARTICLES: |
On Thursday, January 24, 2019 Biotechnology Calendar Inc. will host a Bioresearch Product Faire on the Mission Bay Campus. On Friday, January 25th a second Biotechnology Vendor Showcase; this one on the UCSF Parnassus campus. Lab equipment suppliers wishing to market products to researchers at UCSF should plan on participating in these well attended event.
Last year, the events at the University of California, San Francisco Mission Bay and Parnassus campuses attracted 592 attendees. Of these attendees, 76 were purchasing agents, professors and post docs, and 111 were lab managers.
To learn more about participating in one or both events, call (530) 272-6675 visit the following link:
Researchers in San Francisco interested in learning about newest laboratory products should visit the link below. Science professionals are invited attend to this event for free. Save time at the door by pre-registering :