Sullivan Adds to Center Grant

Another in a string of North Carolina Biotechnology Center funding recipients is compounding the award with more cash and kudos.

Patrick Sullivan, M.D., of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, landed a $126,400 Biotechnology Center grant four years ago to support his work developing high-speed techniques for parsing the genetic makeup of mammalian cells.

Now UNC has announced that Sullivan is one of 15 scientists getting a $100,000 one-year grant from a non-profit mental health charity to support research into the possible genetic links between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

The 2010 Distinguished Investigator Award is from NARSAD, formerly known as the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression.

His project is one of 15 selected out of 170 proposals submitted by researchers worldwide. Each project will each receive $100,000 annually in support of one year of research.

Sullivan, who is Ray M. Hayworth and Family Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the UNC School of Medicine and a member of the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences, is one of 15 selected out of 170 proposals submitted by researchers worldwide.

His lab has identified four families that are affected by schizophrenia and/or bipolar disorder. The group will perform DNA analysis to try to identify variations and genetic links to psychosis in the two families from northern Sweden and two from southern Spain. All have an unusually high number of affected family members.

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