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For more about the Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Fund and Genes Project, go to www.prechterfund.org or call Wally Prechter at (734) 675-2200. |
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Generous donors are poised to give the Depression Center $1.5 million to fund advanced research on bipolar disorder through two challenge grants designed to encourage smaller donations by individuals, especially those whose families and friends have been affected by bipolar disorder.
If the challenge is met, U-M scientists and their colleagues will have $3 million for research on a disease that affects 5.7 million Americans with manic highs and depressed lows that can be debilitating or even fatal.
Donations of any size will be dedicated exclusively to further the work of the Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Fund. Prechter was an automotive pioneer who committed suicide in 2001 after battling bipolar disorder on and off for decades, even while building a successful business and attracting the admiration of friends and family.
The two challenge grants come from the World Heritage Foundation-Prechter Family Fund, which has pledged up to $1 million, and the Herrick Foundation, which has pledged up to $500,000.
Every dollar received as part of the challenge will fuel the search for the specific genes that make a person vulnerable to developing bipolar disorder, and that cause the disease to run in some families.
The donations will accelerate the pace at which U-M scientists and their colleagues can collect and analyze DNA from 1,000 people with bipolar disorder, and 1,000 others. That effort, called the Prechter Bipolar Genes Project, has been under way since 2005, with its base at U-M in cooperation with scientists at Stanford, Cornell and Johns Hopkins universities. The project is unique in the nation and world because it is a longitudinal study, aimed at gathering data over many years.
“To truly understand why bipolar disorder occurs, and how we can treat it more effectively, our researchers must be able to explore every promising avenue and test every hypothesis,” says Dr. John Greden, executive director of the Depression Center. “These two major challenge grants, and the many individual donations they will engender, will make that possible in the promising area of genetics.”
Waltraud “Wally” Prechter, who established the research fund and bipolar genes project in memory of her late husband Heinz, says, “The need for answers is urgent, and millions of families share my concern that we find those answers through science as quickly as possible. Good science takes money, and the time has come to understand the genetic underpinnings of this disease. I am truly honored that the Herrick Foundation is joining this effort with their generous matching grant, and I hope that these challenge grants will spur gifts from the public.”
Hundreds of people already have given DNA samples to build the repository of genetic material that the scientific team needs to perform advanced studies of the disease.
“We have been incredibly gratified by the number of people who are willing to take part in our studies, and to help us in the hunt for the factors that underlie bipolar disorder,” says Dr. Melvin McInnis, the Thomas B. and Nancy Upjohn Woodworth Professor of Bipolar Disorder and Depression in the Medical School Department of Psychiatry, and director of the Depression Center’s psychiatry programs and the Prechter genetic studies.
The lack of effective treatment for a substantial number of individuals — 30 to 50 percent of all people with bipolar disorder — is a major reason for the high risk of suicide and suicide attempts among people with the condition, McInnis says. Up to 15 percent of people with bipolar disorder will commit suicide.
