Today, the Baszucki Brain Research Fund is proud to announce Dr. Iain Campbell as its first Metabolic Psychiatry Research Fellow. During the four-year fellowship and through an investment of $380,000, Dr. Campbell will extend the University’s current research program on ketogenic metabolic therapy for bipolar disorder to include mechanistic controlled clinical trials. His work will also focus on raising awareness through podcasting and online content, and on empowering advocates within the bipolar disorder community to encourage participation in research.

Dr. Iain Campbell is one of the few scientists researching bipolar disorder who also lives with the condition. After personally sending his illness into remission using ketogenic therapies, he dedicated his career to furthering mental health research and the emerging field of metabolic psychiatry. Dr. Campbell received a Ph.D. in global health from The University of Edinburgh, and has published nine peer reviewed papers on mental health and public engagement. He is the co-principal investigator of the first European trial of ketogenic therapies for bipolar disorder. He co-hosts Bipolarcast, a podcast featuring individuals who have used ketogenic therapies to manage bipolar disorder, and is running a questionnaire study of the lived experience of ketogenic therapies for bipolar disorder.

“We believe that Dr. Campbell and colleagues at The University of Edinburgh are well-positioned to advance understanding and treatment of bipolar illness as a metabolic disorder of the brain,” said Jan Ellison Baszucki, who established the Baszucki Brain Research Fund with her husband, Roblox founder and CEO David Baszucki. “Pioneering research studies already underway at the University are exploring the ketogenic metabolic therapy that helped our son as a safe, effective and potentially transformative intervention for bipolar disorder.”

“People with bipolar disorder live with substantial metabolic burden and have an increased risk of developing type two diabetes,” said Dr. Iain Campbell. “Our program is unique in its approach to conducting mechanistic clinical trials into ketogenic metabolic therapy which show promise in addressing both psychiatric symptoms and metabolic dysfunction.”

The Baszucki Brain Research Fund intends to sponsor additional fellowships in Metabolic Psychiatry in the coming years. To learn more about the Baszucki Brain Research Fund’s initiatives in mental health, visit https://baszuckigroup.com/our-work/metabolism-mental-health/.