Rosalind Franklin University Wins Major NIH Subaward to Study How Brains Recognize People in Schizophrenia and Autism

New funding will support focused lab work on social recognition and its breakdown in mental illness

Rosalind Franklin University announced that it has secured a five-year subaward from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) worth $1,733,330 to study social recognition — the brain processes that let people recognize others and respond socially. The subaward comes as part of a larger five-year NIMH grant made to the Icahn School of Medicine, with Rosalind Franklin University designated to carry out a specific set of experiments aimed at understanding how social recognition goes wrong in schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders.

The money will pay for lab time, staff, experiments and analysis that target small brain circuits thought to guide social behavior. For patients and families, the project promises better knowledge about why some people struggle to recognize and respond to others — a core problem that can make daily life harder — but it will not produce treatments overnight.

How this five-year NIMH award is structured and what the $1,733,330 covers

The grant comes as a subaward to Rosalind Franklin University under a five-year NIMH program led by the Icahn School of Medicine. Rosalind Franklin’s portion is $1,733,330 spread across the multi-year period. The university will use the funds to support personnel, animal care, specialized equipment, and the experiments described in the project plan.

In practice that means paying salaries for postdoctoral researchers, technicians and graduate students, covering the costs of running behavioral tests, and buying reagents and imaging time. The award also supports data analysis and the initial sharing of results through papers and conferences. The main award holder at Icahn School of Medicine will coordinate broader goals and oversight, while Rosalind Franklin University leads several of the core experimental aims under a subaward agreement.

What the lab will actually study: the nuts and bolts of social recognition research

The team plans to look at the brain circuits and chemical signals that let animals — and by extension people — tell one individual from another and act differently toward them. In practical terms, researchers will use well-established animal models to trace which cells and pathways activate when an animal recognizes a familiar peer versus a stranger.

Methods are likely to include carefully observed behavioral tests, circuit-mapping tools that mark and manipulate nerve cells, and measures of neural activity during social encounters. The experiments aim to move beyond simple observation. Researchers want to test whether changing specific circuits or signals causes predictable changes in social recognition. That causal approach helps separate which brain features are essential from those that are merely associated with social behavior.

Meet the lead investigator and the institutions shaping the project

The work at Rosalind Franklin University will be led by Dr. Joanna Dabrowska, a neuroscientist whose recent work focuses on how brain circuits control social and emotional behavior. The study is a collaboration with teams at the Icahn School of Medicine, which holds the primary NIMH award and provides broader study coordination and oversight.

Within Rosalind Franklin University, a small team of postdocs, technicians and students will run experiments and analyze data. The partnership with Icahn brings expertise in advanced imaging and clinical perspectives, while Rosalind Franklin contributes specific strengths in circuit-level experiments and behavioral testing.

Why this research matters — and why any clinical benefit may take time

This project tackles a core question: what in the brain allows people to judge who they are interacting with and respond sociallly? A clearer answer could point toward targets for new therapies or better ways to measure social function in clinical trials. That could, years from now, inform treatments for social impairments in schizophrenia and autism.

At the same time, the work is preclinical. Findings from animal studies often do not translate cleanly into human treatments. Brain circuits are complex and human social behavior is shaped by culture, experience and language — factors that animal tests cannot reproduce. Any path from circuit discoveries to a new medicine would require many more steps: validation in multiple models, safety testing, and ultimately carefully designed human studies. That timeline typically spans many years.

Next steps, likely outputs and how the team will share progress

Over the grant period the team expects to publish peer-reviewed papers, present at scientific meetings, and release curated datasets that other researchers can use. Early milestones include establishing reliable behavioral tests, mapping key circuits, and publishing initial causal experiments. The university’s communications office will provide updates and can put reporters in touch with project leads for interviews about specific findings.

For now, the award mainly funds basic discovery work. Its real value will be measured in clearer scientific maps of social recognition and, perhaps years hence, in new targets for therapies aimed at the social problems that burden people with schizophrenia and autism.

Sources

• prnewswire.com