Federal Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) awarded the University of Pittsburgh a Project Grant of $189,492 under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) on March 13, 2026, with a completion date of February 28, 2031. This K23 (Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award) grant funds research testing an integrative neurobiological model of suicidal ideation (SI) in adolescents. The research examines the hypothesis that peripheral inflammatory markers (PIMs) such as IL-6, TNF-α, and CRP contribute to dysfunction in reward-related corticostriatal circuitry, which in turn contributes to adolescent SI. The study specifically investigates effort expenditure for reward as a behavioral correlate linked to SI and suicidal behavior (SB) in this vulnerable developmental population.

The research deliverables include a longitudinal study following 90 adolescents with unipolar depressive disorders (enriched with those having a history of SI or SB) across four timepoints over twelve months. This project addresses a critical public health gap by clarifying biological mechanisms underlying adolescent suicide—the leading cause of non-accidental death in U.S. adolescents—with the ultimate goal of informing effective preventive treatments. By integrating inflammatory biomarkers, neuroimaging analysis of functional connectivity, and behavioral assessments of reward processing, this research advances understanding of the neurobiological pathways connecting immune activation to suicidal ideation during a critical developmental period when both reward circuitry and immune system maturation are occurring.