Columbia University has announced a $75 million grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to establish a university-wide collaboration that will catalyze innovations in precision medicine and help transform the fields of psychiatry and mental health.

Part of SNF’s Global Health Initiative, the grant will fund the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health to enable Columbia to advance the science and practice of integrating a patient’s unique genomic, physiologic, and health profiles to create optimized strategies to improve the diagnosis and treatment of mental health illnesses. To that end, the center will serve as a joint effort with the university’s Department of Psychiatry, the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, and the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons—where the center will be housed—and draw on partnerships with the Columbia-affiliated New York Genome Center and the New York State Office of Mental Health.

“Many existing treatments in psychiatry do not get at root causes,” said Katrina Armstrong, CEO of Columbia University Irving Medical Center and dean of the faculties of health sciences at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. “We welcome this opportunity to develop new approaches that focus on disease mechanisms and target treatment based on an individual’s unique genetic makeup and biology for the ultimate benefit of lifting up care for the community at large.”

“The insights provided by genomics and precision medicine are proving of tremendous value in improving people’s health and lives,” said Columbia University president Lee C. Bollinger. “Through this new center, our researchers will meet an urgent human need by harnessing precision medicine to promote mental health for all.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Nobi Prizue)