Baszucki Brain Research Fund Backs First Clinical Pilot Trials of Ketogenic Metabolic Interventions for Mental Health Conditions in Nearly 60 Years

$2 million in grants to investigate evidence-based epilepsy treatment for neuropsychiatric disorders

SAN MATEO, Calif., July 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Baszucki Brain Research Fund is pleased to announce that five science teams around the globe have received funding to study ketogenic metabolic interventions for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and major depressive disorder.

The Fund is providing $2 million in grants to support neurometabolic research focused on the benefits of carbohydrate-restricted ketogenic diet therapies for improving mental health outcomes. Building on preliminary research, including a recent retrospective analysis of thirty-one inpatients in France, the funding for the five research grants supports the first pilot trials of ketogenic interventions for mental illness since a single promising study in schizophrenia in 1965. 

"We've known for 100 years from treatment of epilepsy that ketogenic interventions can stabilize the brain," said author Jan Ellison Baszucki, who in 2019 established the Baszucki Brain Research Fund alongside her husband, Roblox founder and CEO David Baszucki, to invest philanthropically in breakthrough science for mental health conditions. "We're hopeful that the innovative work of these science teams will help to advance the ketogenic metabolic interventions that helped transform our son's life."

This announcement builds on the family's prior investments in bipolar science in partnership with the Milken Institute Center for Strategic Philanthropy, totaling more than $13 million. With mental health receiving less than 1% of all philanthropic health spending worldwide, the new grants are intended to accelerate the field of metabolic psychiatry and build human capital, with the goal of transforming clinical care.

According to Dr. Shebani Sethi at Stanford University, who founded the world's first academic speciality clinic in Metabolic Psychiatry, "Traditional funding for these sorts of trials has been difficult to impossible to come by. The Baszuckis' investment in metabolic psychiatry trials will enable tremendous progress in advancing ketogenic therapies for a host of mental illnesses."

The Baszucki Brain Research Fund awardees include teams from:

• James Cook University
• The Ohio State University
• Stanford University
• University of California, San Francisco
• University of Edinburgh

The principal investigators of the five trials met in May to form a working group at the first ever Metabolic Psychiatry Roadmap Retreat in Santa Barbara.

"My research team has been focused on the formulation and implementation of carbohydrate-restricted ketogenic therapies, which we have demonstrated can have a transformative effect on people's metabolic health and wellbeing," said awardee Jeff Volek, PhD, RD research scientist and professor at The Ohio State University and co-founder of Virta Health. "This grant is instrumental in allowing us to extend our work into potential benefits on mental health, specifically the application of these therapies for managing major depression in college-aged adults."

To learn more about the Baszucki Family Foundation's initiatives in mental health, visit baszuckigroup.com/our-work/.

About the Baszucki Brain Research Fund
The Baszucki Brain Research Fund, part of Baszucki Group, was launched in 2020 by Roblox founder and CEO David Baszucki and best-selling author Jan Ellison Baszucki. The Fund invests in innovative science and technologies to advance the prevention and treatment of bipolar disorder and other mental health conditions. It aims to fight stigma by catalyzing research and advancements in clinical care, with a focus on metabolic neuroscience, metabolic psychiatry and ketogenic interventions for mental health.

SOURCE Baszucki Group