The Garvey Institute for Brain Health Solutions hosts first Annual Meeting

Department news | January 31, 2022


The Garvey Institute for Brain Health Solutions reached a milestone this month by holding its first Annual Meeting. We were thrilled to have Mike and Lynn Garvey, the donors who established the Institute with a $50 M foundational gift, in attendance as well as Dean Ramsey who started things off with a warm welcome. The meeting included presentations by researchers funded with Garvey Institute support including Marco Pravetoni, PhD (Medication development for substance use disorders), Sunny Cheng, PhD, Sarah Kopelovich, PhD, and Dror Ben-Zeev, PhD (Digital health interventions for people with schizophrenia and their caregivers), Nathan Sackett, MD, MS, and Rebecca Hendrickson, MD, PhD (Psychedelics in the treatment of trauma and addiction) and Jeffrey Iliff, PhD (While you were (or weren’t) sleeping).

Since its launch in 2019, the Institute has:

  • Funded 24 Innovation Grants in the areas of cognitive aging, addictions, trauma and mental health and technology. Investigators supported by these grants come from all three campuses, 9 schools and colleges and 20 departments across UW.
  • Recruited lead scientist Marco Pravetoni, PhD, an expert in the development of vaccines, antibody-based strategies, and small molecules to counteract opioid use disorders and overdose.
  • Developed plans for a new fellowship program in behavioral neurology/neuropsychiatry in partnership with the UW Department of Neurology.
  • Launched a Brain Health Science Writing Internship in partnership with the UW Memory and Brain Wellness Center, UW Medicine Strategic Marketing and Communications and UW Medicine Advancement.
  • Established a Community Advisory Board with members Craig Cole, Rita Egrari, Joe Whittinghill and Ken Worzel.

The Institute is actively recruiting for three additional endowed professorships in the areas of addiction, cognitive aging and neuromodulation, is exploring new areas of research such as the use of psychedelics in the treatment of trauma and addiction and the gut-brain connection, and is exploring options for the development of an Innovation Clinic that would support clinical research with space for clinical trials and shared services, and is exploring additional interdisciplinary training programs.

To learn more about the Institute’s work, visit gibhs.psychiatry.uw.edu or view a recording of the annual meeting.