Poitras Center to fuel early careers of 50 young scientists dedicated to psychiatric disorders research

Patricia and James Poitras '63 have launched a fellowship program for graduate students and postdocs studying major mental illness, establishing 50 two-year fellowships through the Poitras Center for Psychiatric Disorders Research at MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research. The $10 million gift provides five fellowships per year for the next decade.

Robert Desimone, director of the McGovern Institute and head of the Poitras Center, said the Poitras have remained steadfast in their decades-long commitment to research that can transform mental wellness, and described their support of rising talent in the MIT ecosystem as another emblem of that commitment.

Five McGovern Institute researchers form the inaugural cohort of Poitras Center Fellows and Graduate Scholars. Amrita Lamba, a postdoc in the Saxe lab, will examine whether a two-player economic game could distinguish generalized anxiety from social anxiety. Hoonwon Lee, a postdoc in the Jasanoff lab, examines how fear memories develop and persist across brain networks, findings that may lead to new targets for post-traumatic stress disorder. Karen Pang, a graduate student in the Anikeeva lab, studies how the gut communicates with the brain to influence anxiety and depression. Smriti Saini, a graduate student in the Gabrieli lab, is using brain imaging and computational techniques to identify which people with severe social anxiety will benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy. Linghua Zhang, a postdoc in the Wang lab, will study circuit-level mechanisms behind the brain benefits of physical activity.

The Poitras family gave $20 million in 2007 to launch the Poitras Center, which bridges basic neuroscience, clinical psychiatry, and molecular biology. Subsequent investments have supported research including how ketamine acts on synaptic communication and why schizophrenia distorts inner speech and reasoning, along with advances such as an AI-powered calculator for predicting bipolar disorder risk in adolescents, molecular carriers for therapy delivery, and strategies that use patients' brain activity patterns to match them with optimal treatments.

The new gift extends the family's support of mental health research at MIT to over $100 million. James Poitras, chair of the McGovern Institute's board, said the family recognizes it must support not only transformational research but also the young people driving its progress. Patricia Poitras said investing in the next generation of researchers will accelerate discoveries leading to life-changing treatments. The next application window for Poitras Center fellowships opens in May 2027.