Director’s Messages about Basic Research

In Dr. Gordon’s latest Director's Message, he expresses support for the critical work of NIMH’s Dr. Elisabeth Murray and others who are advancing brain science through basic research.

In this message, Dr. Gordon joins with 10 other NIH Institute Directors to highlight the importance and necessity of COVID-19 testing and the ways NIH is helping establish programs that will ensure access to and acceptance of rapid and reliable testing for COVID-19.

In the first of two Director’s Messages to mark the 10-year anniversary of the creation of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative, Dr. Gordon discusses the initial purpose of RDoC and the progress made over the last ten years.

This week, the National Institute of Mental Health unveiled its new NIMH Strategic Plan for Research. In this Director’s message, Dr. Gordon discusses the advances in knowledge and treatment that got us to where we are today and points to where we want our research to go in the future.

In this Director’s Message, Dr. Gordon looks at new findings that help shed light on the complex causal web that leads from genes to autism.

In this Director’s Message, Dr. Gordon highlights new findings that advance our understanding of how genetic differences contribute to the development of schizophrenia.

In this Director’s Message, directed toward a general audience, Dr. Gordon discusses the role of animals in mental health research and what they can tell us about human mental illnesses.

In this Director’s Message, directed toward the research community, Dr. Gordon provides guidance to researchers on the use of animals in mental health research funded by NIMH.

In this Director’s message, Dr. Gordon digs into the historical roots of the hippocampus and the role it plays in human memory – an example of how scientists build upon past research discoveries and, in turn, advance the science that could benefit future generations.

The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) focuses on research which translates basic neuroscience findings into novel treatments. In this Director’s Message, Dr. Gordon discusses some of the exciting work presented at this year’s ACNP meeting.

Those of you who follow Dr. Gordon on Twitter (@NIMHDirector) may have seen snippets of his experiences at the 2018 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), the largest gathering of neuroscientists in the world. In this Director’s message, Dr. Gordon highlights some of the excellent basic research on display at this year’s conference.

Dr. Gordon discusses the presence—and negative impact—of bias in science and how we can take positive steps as individuals and organizations to challenge these assumptions and combat their damaging effects.

A Genomics Workgroup of the National Advisory Mental Health Council has issued a report with recommendations for NIMH’s ongoing support of genomics research. Dr. Gordon offers highlights of the report with his reflections.

Dr. Gordon reflects on his first year at NIMH and outlines priorities for going forward.

Dr. Gordon relates highlights of summer scientific meetings.

Dr. Gordon explains how computational and theoretical neuroscience can advance research into mental disorders.

Dr. Gordon talks about the potential pay-offs of research on neural circuits and next steps for going forward.