Psychiatric Disease Program

Broad Institute 'PsychHTS' Initiative

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To stimulate a flow of new ideas to treat psychiatric illnesses and potentially discover drugs with novel mechanisms of action, we initiated a new program in February 2009, enabled by funding from the Stanley Medical Research Institute. This program is distinct and independent from the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. It fits within the existing Broad Institute Chemical Biology and Novel Therapeutics (‘CBNT’) Programs’ process for proposing and executing high-throughput screening (HTS) projects. For this ‘PsychHTS’ Initiative we will work with investigators who have novel innovative ideas relevant to psychiatric disease to (1) help formulate new screens; (2) develop such screens into a format suitable for HTS; and (3) do some follow-up work including medicinal chemistry.

This page provides the resources necessary to learn about and apply to engage with the Broad Institute Chemical Biology Platform to undertake your high-throughput screening project via this ‘PscyhHTS Initiative’.


Application Package

The PsychHTS application package (last updated 02/06/09) includes the following documents:

  1. “PsychHTS Intro Letter”: Letter from Ed Scolnick to the neuroscience community announcing and detailing this special initiative and its goals, and inviting applications.
  2. “Broad Institute Chemical Biology Platform and Novel Therapeutics Platform: Overview of Principles and Processes (Focus: PsychHTS)”: General principles for working effectively with the Chemical Biology Platform, and an overview of the process for investigators to propose and execute projects.
  3. ”Broad Institute Chemical Biology Platform High-Throughput Screening Application (Focus: PsychHTS)”: To be completed for each new PsychHTS project proposal.
  4. “Broad Institute High-Throughput Assay Readiness Assessment”: To be completed for projects favorably evaluated by the Application Review Committee.
  5. “Broad Institute Chemical Biology Platform Screening Services and Data Sharing Agreement”: To be completed for projects that are assessed as HTS-ready and accepted for execution.
  6. “Broad Institute Chemical Biology Platform Incoming Materials Transfer Agreement”: To be completed for projects that are assessed as HTS-ready and accepted for execution.


Application Process

After carefully reviewing Document # 2, the Broad Institute Chemical Biology Platform and Novel
Therapeutics Platform: Overview of Principles and Processes document, we request that all investigators complete a screening application (document #3), describing the scientific rationale and screening approach for the project. Please initiate the review of the Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) and Materials Transfer Agreement (MTA) with your institution’s technology transfer office and/or sponsored research office prior to submitting an application.

Applications will be reviewed by an Application Review Committee consisting of experts in basic
biology, neuroscience, disease biology and drug discovery. If your application is aligned with the Psychiatric Disease Program mission, as determined by the Application Review Committee, we
will meet with you (in person or by phone) to review the readiness status of your assay(s). This discussion will be guided by the Broad Institute High-Throughput Assay Readiness Assessment
document. Assays that are deemed ready for assay development at the facility and which meet secondary considerations (balancing of the Broad HTS portfolio, funding obligations, technical
feasibility etc.) will be accepted for execution during the next available screening slot at the facility. Accepted projects will require a completed DSA and MTA to be in place prior to project
initiation.


Application Deadlines

The upcoming PsychHTS application deadlines are:

  • March 1, 2010
  • June 4, 2010
  • September 3, 2010
  • November 29, 2010

We estimate that the review process will take ~6 weeks from the application receipt deadline to selection of assays for execution.


Contact Us

If you have any questions, please email htsfacility@broadinstitute.org and your request will be directed to the relevant contact.


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