The Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Fund supports research within the University of Michigan's Depression Center. The Depression Center, the nation's first comprehensive center devoted to the prevention, detection and treatment of depression, bipolar disorder and related illnesses, is dedicated to providing national leadership in the areas of depression research, clinical care of patients with depression-related disorders, and in the training of the next generation of physicians and medical scientists who wish to devote their careers to learning more about the causes of depression-related disorders and the best ways to treat them. These initiatives have great life-changing potential for the many millions of people around the world -- and their families and friends -- whose lives are compromised by the terrible effects of depression, bipolar disorder and related illnesses.

The University of Michigan is building strong, national leadership in bipolar disorder under the guidance of John Greden, M.D. The University of Michigan today is one of the top academic research institutions in America with an exceptional culture of collaboration that is attracting many of the nation's top medical scientists to Michigan and to research in the brain-related sciences. Melvin G. McInnis, M.D., a leading scholar in bipolar genetics, was recruited to the University by Dr. Greden after serving 15 years on the faculty at Johns Hopkins. His initial study of bipolar families became one of the first modern genetic linkage studies in bipolar disorder.

The Prechter Fund is currently supporting major genetic research projects. Based at the U-M Depression Center, the projects incorporate collaborations with researchers at Cornell, Stanford and Johns Hopkins. Data from our Repository will one day be made available to scientists around the world. For more information, please see Bipolar Gene Project.