Saving Troubled Minds

By Anne Burke

Published Oct 1, 2006 8:00 AM

Garen and Shari were determined to help their son beat the illness. They sought out the best doctors, read scientific literature and met with researchers. As the Staglins learned more, they decided to make the search for a cure their life's work.

In 1994, the couple put on a music festival at their vineyard to raise money for research and treatment of physiological brain disorders. The Staglin Family Music Festival for Mental Health was a huge hit. Now in its 12th year, the annual festival has raised more than $30 million for treatment and research. The event is a feast for epicures and music lovers but also a forum for discussion of the latest research in mental health. Roberta Flack and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys have performed. Top chefs prepare five-course dinners, served poolside under the stars in the Staglins' lusciously landscaped backyard. Winemakers donate their best vintages. Leading mental health scientists discuss their latest research. The Staglins underwrite all expenses.

In the late 1990s, Garen and Shari gave $1 million to UCLA to endow a professorship that would focus on finding the causes and cure for schizophrenia and other mental disorders. They set conditions: The appointment had to go to a "walk-on-water scientist" who would push hard at the boundaries of knowledge. "The projects we like to fund are these high-risk, high-reward things," Garen says. Convinced that the fight against mental illness must involve a multidisciplinary, holistic approach, the Staglins also wanted someone who would work collaboratively with other UCLA departments and schools, as well as peers around the world.

"Have you met him? Isn't he totally that person?" Shari asks about Cannon.

Newly installed at UCLA, Cannon began thinking about how to focus his work. "He came to us and said, ‘How about if we prevent this stuff before it even starts,' and I said, ‘Yes!' " Shari says, nearly jumping out of her chair.

The Staglins gave $1.2 million in seed money for CAPPS. The funds went for early research that would enable Cannon to win awards of $11.5 million from the National Institute of Mental Health. The Staglins have since endowed CAPPS with $3.5 million and contributed $4 million to the Staglin Music Festival Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at UCLA. The center explores the human brain in order to understand the workings of the mind. All told, the Staglins have given about $10 million for mental health research and treatment at UCLA.

In the seven years since he has come to UCLA, Cannon has "dramatically exceeded our expectations," Garen says. The researcher's first major breakthrough was reported in 2002. Working with the same brain maps of the Finnish twins, Cannon found that schizophrenia patients have significant reductions in gray matter in regions of the brain that synthesize information. The reduced gray matter indicates that neurons are making weaker connections in these areas that integrate, interpret and organize information.

Three years later, Cannon published findings that moved research closer toward finding a way to prevent schizophrenia. Susceptibility to the disease is associated with several genes. One is called DISC1. Looking again at the brain maps of the Finnish twins, Cannon discovered a DNA sequence variation in a region partly in DISC1 and partly in a neighboring gene called TRAX. Someone who has the sequence variation is at 10 times the normal risk for schizophrenia. Cannon's hope is that one day it may be possible to fix the sequence variation so that the DISC1 gene functions normally.

Just one of the many reasons why the Staglins' walk-on-water scientist sounds so hopeful.

"I have to say I'm really excited by what we're doing these days," Cannon says.