In a university first, psychiatrist earns prestigious award for her 'outsider' approach
Of the 39 researchers who have won the Avenir Award within the decade of its existence, Susan Shen, MD, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry in the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, is the first female psychiatrist, the first from Iowa, and only the third psychiatrist overall to receive the highly-competitive grant.
“I wanted to represent the field, which is really what motivated me to apply,” Shen says.
The $2.3 million grant, which includes $1.5 million in direct funds, will be distributed to Shen’s lab in annual installments of $300,000 over the next five years. It will fund her lab’s research into the shared genetic underpinnings of substance use and psychiatric disorders.
The grant is administered through the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Officially named the Avenir Award in Genetics and Epigenetics of Substance Use, it is only awarded to about three recipients per year.
The purpose of the Avenir award is to kickstart innovative research by “early-stage” investigators in three focus areas pertaining to HIV/AIDS, the genetics and epigenetics of substance use, or the chemistry and pharmacology of substance use.
