Research Grant Recipients

Research is vital to our goals of better understanding OCD and related disorders, and improving treatment. To help achieve these goals, the IOCDF awards research grants to promising studies thanks to generous donors from within the OCD community.

Since 1994, the IOCDF has awarded $11 million in research grants, and continues to offer research grant awards annually. The Michael Jenike Young Investigator Awards, which help build OCD research programs and keep junior researchers interested in studying the field of OCD and related disorders, are offered every year. The Breakthrough and Innovator Awards, which fund the work of senior researchers as they pursue large-scale projects that help us better understand and treat OCD, are offered in alternating years.

What can an IOCDF Research Grant Award help us learn about OCD and related disorders?

Jonathan S. Abramowitz, PhD, ABPP, discusses his IOCDF grant-funded research into couple-based cognitive behavioral therapy for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

2022 Research Grant Awardees

We are excited to announce the 2022 IOCDF Research Grant awardees! This year, we awarded $1.6 million in funding to researchers pursuing exciting and impactful projects on a range of topics in OCD and related disorders including PANDAS/PANS. To read more about their projects, click "2022 IOCDF Research Grant Award Winners" below!

Previous IOCDF Research Grant Recipients

The generosity of our donors has made it possible for us to provide sustained support for OCD and related disorders research for the past 26 years. Over 100 projects have been funded on a wide range of important topics. You can learn more about the research that the IOCDF funds by reading the project summaries below.

 Research funded by the IOCDF:

Thank you to our 2022 Grant Review Committee:

Christopher Pittenger, MD, PhD - Yale University (Chair)
Jennifer Freeman, PhD - Butler Hospital/Brown University (Vice Chair)

Thomas Adams, PhD - University of Kentucky
Dritan Agalliu, PhD - Columbia University
Susanne Ahmari, MD, PhD - University of Pittsburgh
Rebecca Anderson, PhD - Curtin University
Paul Arnold, MD, PhD - University of Calgary
Catherine Ayers, PhD - University of California San Diego
Novin Balafkan, PhD - Yale University
David Barker, PhD - Brown University
Cynthia Battle, PhD - Brown University
Kristen Benito, PhD - Brown University/Butler Hospital
Michael Bloch, MD - Yale University
Christiana Bratiotis, MSW, PhD - University of British Columbia
Alexander Bystritsky, MD, PhD - University of California, Los Angeles
Matthew Carper, PhD - Brown University
Gregory Chasson, PhD - Illinois Institute of Technology
Terence Ching, PhD - Yale University
Christine Conelea, PhD - University of Minnesota
Madeleine Cunningham, PhD - University of Oklahoma
Michael Daines, MD - University of Arizona
Justine Dembo, MD, FRCPC - University of Toronto
Darin Dougherty, MD - Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School
Stephanie Dulawa, PhD - University of California, San Diego
Lara Farrell, PhD - Griffith University
Thomas Fernandez, MD - Yale University
Jamie Feusner, MD - University of California Los Angeles
Martijn Figee, MD, PhD - Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Leonardo Fontenelle, MD, PhD - Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Martin Franklin, PhD - Rogers Behavioral Health
Jennifer Frankovich, MD - Stanford University
Jennifer Freeman, PhD - Butler Hospital/Brown University
Sarah Garnaat, PhD - Brown University
Wayne Goodman, MD - Baylor College of Medicine
Jon Grant, JD, MD, MPH - University of Chicago
Jennifer Greenberg, PsyD - Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School
Jessica Grisham, PhD - University of New South Wales, Sydney
Edna Grünblatt, PhD - University of Zurich
Robert Hudak, MD - University of Pittsburgh
Ryan Jacoby, PhD - Harvard University/Massachusetts General Hospital
Reilly Kayser, MD - Columbia University
Benjamin Kelmendi, MD - Yale University
Joshua Kemp, PhD - Brown University/Butler Hospital
James Knowles, MD, PhD - State University of New York, Downstate
Lorrin Koran, MD - Stanford University
Gayle Maloney, PhD - Yale University
David Mataix-Cols, PhD - Karolinska Institutet
Nicole McLaughlin, PhD - Brown University
Jeffrey Miller, MD - Columbia University
Steffen Moritz, PhD - University Medical Center, Hamburg
Andrew Moses Lee, MD, PhD - University of California, San Francisco
Naveen Nagarajan, PhD - University of Utah
Melissa Norberg, PhD - Macquarie University
Jacob Nota, PhD - McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School
David Nutt, DM, FRCP - Imperial College London
Erin O’Connor, PhD - Brown University
Bunmi Olatunji, PhD - Vanderbilt University
Edward Pace-Schott, PhD - Harvard Medical School
Michele Pato, MD - Rutgers University
Tara Peris, PhD - University of California, Los Angeles
Katharine Phillips, MD - Weill Cornell Medical College
Anthony Pinto, PhD - Zucker Hillside Hospital/Northwell Health
Christopher Pittenger, MD, PhD - Yale University
Renato Polimanti, PhD - Yale School of Medicine
Andrea Pozza, PhD - University of Siena
Peggy Richter, MD, FRCP - University of Toronto
Bradley Riemann, PhD - Rogers Behavioral Health
Carolyn Rodriguez, MD, PhD - Stanford University
Sanjaya Saxena, MD - University of California, San Diego
H. Blair Simpson, MD, PhD - Columbia University
Gail Steketee, PhD - Boston University
Emily Stern, PhD - New York University/Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene
Eric Storch, PhD - Baylor College of Medicine
Margo Thienemann, MD - Stanford University
Kiara Timpano, PhD - University of Miami
Peter Tuerk, PhD - University of Virginia
Michael Twohig, PhD - Utah State University
Daniel Tylee, MD, PhD - Yale School of Medicine
Anna Van Meter, PhD - New York University
Barbara Van Noppen, PhD - University of Southern California
Hilary Weingarden, PhD - Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard University
Chad Wetterneck, PhD - University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Michael Wheaton, PhD - Barnard College
Kyle Williams, MD, PhD - Harvard University
Monnica Williams, PhD - University of Ottawa
Bethany Wootton, PhD - University of Technology, Sydney
Brian Zaboski, PhD - Yale University