The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge’s 2025 Year in Review, was shared with newsletter subscribers by DGC Director Nelson Freimer, MD on Dec. 24, 2025. Freimer’s message celebrated ten years of the DGC’s mission to cut the burden of depression on human health and well-being in half by 2050, and overviewed updates on the following:
Two UCLA Depression Grand Challenge researchers have been named among the world’s most influential scholars in the sciences and social sciences: Michelle Craske, PhD, DGC co-director and creator of the STAND system of care; and Elaine Hsiao, PhD, director of the UCLA Goodman–Luskin Microbiome Center and an expert on the ways in which the gut microbiome influences neurobiology.
In an Oct. 24, 2025, segment of CBS News Los Angeles, the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge’s STAND system of care was highlighted as an innovative example of digital mental health programs tailored to college students.
A preprint protocol article describing the design and implementation of the landmark Digital Mental Health Study was posted on medRxiv on Oct. 1, 2025 and has been submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Senior authors of this protocol article from UCLA include Nelson Freimer, MD, UCLA Depression Grand Challenge director and DMHS principal investigator; Michelle Craske, PhD, DGC co-director.
A review by UCLA Depression Grand Challenge researchers, published in Neuropsychopharmacology on Aug. 29, 2025, summarizes the increasing need for effective mental health resources for young adults and positions the STAND system of care as a model of a scalable, tailored intervention that can close gaps in care for college student populations.
