Federal Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) awarded Harvard Medical School $674,028 under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) on May 1, 2026, for a project period extending through January 31, 2031. The award supports research investigating the determinants and function of tonic dopamine signaling in the striatum, a brain structure critical to action selection and decision-making. The research team has developed innovative methods to measure tonic and phasic dopamine levels in real-time as mice navigate various behavioral contexts, enabling differentiation between the distinct mechanisms and functional roles of these two dopamine signaling modes.

The primary deliverables under this project grant include advanced understanding of how tonic dopamine contributes to behavioral and cognitive processes, mechanistic insights into dopamine dysregulation relevant to neuropsychiatric disease, and methodological advances in real-time dopamine measurement technology. By elucidating the fundamental mechanisms underlying tonic dopamine function and its perturbations, the research is expected to inform the development and refinement of evidence-based treatments for mental health disorders associated with dopamine system dysfunction. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and may yield novel computational tools and datasets for the broader mental health research community.