Depression Grand Challenge

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge is part of a consortium tapped by Wellcome, a global charitable organization that funds discovery research, to conduct a scoping research project on digital sensing for mental health research.

Elaine Hsiao, PhD, director of the UCLA Goodman–Luskin Microbiome Center and an expert on the ways in which the gut microbiome influences neurobiology, has been awarded funding by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to lead a new maternal mental health research study.

The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health awarded the Depression Grand Challenge another year of funding as part of the DMH+UCLA Public Partnership for Wellbeing.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge was awarded a five-year, $12 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to expand its STAND system of care, with a focus on reaching more California community college students.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge was one of twelve organizations selected as a performer for the Wellcome-Leap Multi-Channel Psych program. The program aims to develop better understanding about anhedonic depression, a severe and inhibitive kind of depression which affects the ability to feel pleasure or enjoyment.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge was awarded two years of funding from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health under the DMH+UCLA Public Partnership for Wellbeing in July 2020. This demonstration project explores the feasibility of implementing STAND in community colleges, as community college students are less likely to have access to mental health services and face significant need.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge has begun a pilot research project in collaboration with Apple, called the Digital Mental Health Study. The study seeks to develop more objective measures for detecting depression and anxiety.

The funds will enable the DGC to upgrade the STAND Program (dubbed STAND 2.0), including an enhanced digital treatment platform and the creation of new algorithms and back-end tools.