Poitras Family Funds 50 MIT Psychiatry Fellowships With $10 Million Gift
Updated
Updated · MIT News · Sep 22
Poitras Family Funds 50 MIT Psychiatry Fellowships With $10 Million Gift
2 articles · Updated · MIT News · Sep 22
Summary
$10 million from Patricia and James Poitras will fund 50 two-year fellowships at MIT for graduate students and postdocs studying major mental illness.
Five fellowships will be awarded annually for the next decade through the Poitras Center for Psychiatric Disorders Research, building a long-term pipeline for early-career scientists as federal funding grows more precarious.
MIT named five inaugural fellows and scholars, whose projects target anxiety subtypes, fear memories tied to PTSD, gut-brain links in depression, personalized therapy for social anxiety, and how exercise reshapes mood-related brain circuits.
The gift lifts the Poitras family's support for mental health research at MIT to more than $100 million, extending a relationship that began with a $20 million donation in 2007 to launch the Poitras Center.
MIT says the next application window for the fellowships will open in May 2027, as the program aims to speed new treatments for depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and related conditions.