Jan Kubanek, an associate professor of psychiatry at WashU Medicine, received the 2026 One Mind Rising Star Award to develop a noninvasive, precision ultrasound tool that can selectively modulate areas deep within the brain associated with depression.
The three-year $300,000 grant is awarded by One Mind, a global nonprofit that invests in mental health research. Kubanek is one of five early-career scientists selected this year.
Major depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting nearly 300 million people, and about one in three patients do not respond to existing treatments. Therapies that alter the activity of networks of brain cells hold promise, but progress has been slowed by an incomplete understanding of which networks drive the disorder.
