Stanley Medical Research Institute

What Stanley Medical Research Institute does

The Stanley Medical Research Institute (SMRI) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1989 and headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, that supports research on the causes and treatments of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. SMRI operates three core program areas: a Treatment Trial Grants program that currently funds 40-50 concurrent clinical trials (primarily for generic and off-label medications), a Brain Tissue Repository comprising five specialized postmortem brain collections totaling approximately 306 specimens with matched controls, and the Stanley Neuropathology Consortium Integrative Database (SNCID), a web-based platform integrating over 6,161 neuropathology datasets with 23 gene expression microarray datasets, RNA-Seq data, and individually genotyped SNP data.

The organization's underlying technology is a curated postmortem brain tissue repository paired with a multi-omics database and statistical analysis tools. Brain specimens are matched by age, sex, race, postmortem interval, pH, side of brain, and mRNA quality across diagnostic groups, and distributed to researchers using a blinded coding system evaluated monthly by the Tissue Allocation Committee. SMRI has also built a Repurposed Drug Database covering nine candidate compounds (Aspirin, Celecoxib, Estrogen/Raloxifene, Folate, Minocycline, Mirtazapine, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Pramipexole, and Pregnenolone) with clinical trial updates.

SMRI's business model is nonprofit research funding through donations and grants, with over $550 million in cumulative research support distributed since 1989 across more than 30 countries. Database access is free for academic and non-commercial research use, while commercial use requires separate agreement and permission from SMRI. The organization's primary customers are academic researchers conducting treatment trials and neuroscience research, with secondary audiences of patients, families, and healthcare providers receiving free educational resources. SMRI operates with 11-50 employees and supports three core partner organizations: the Stanley Neurovirology Lab at Johns Hopkins University, the Stanley Program for Epidemiology, Prevention, and Treatment of Schizophrenia (SPECS), and the Treatment Advocacy Center.

Name

Stanley Medical Research Institute

Legal name

The Stanley Medical Research Institute

Website

https://stanleyresearch.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1989

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

SMRI is a nonprofit founded in 1989 that funds schizophrenia and bipolar disorder research through treatment trial grants (40-50 concurrent trials), a postmortem brain tissue repository of ~306 specimens across five collections, and the SNCID integrative neuropathology database with 6,161+ datasets serving academic researchers globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Chevy Chase

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Others

Revenue model

1. Nonprofit Research Funding: As a nonprofit organization, SMRI is funded through donations and grants to support research on schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The database is freely available to researchers, with commercial use requiring agreement and permission from SMRI.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Stanley Medical Research Institute (SMRI) is a nonprofit organization that supports research on the causes of and treatments for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Its core offerings include Treatment Trial Grants (funding 40-50 ongoing medication efficacy trials at any time), a Brain Research Tissue Repository of postmortem brain specimens and multi-omics datasets, and the Stanley Neuropathology Consortium Integrative Database (SNCID) for data mining and biomarker discovery.

Product overview

Stanley Medical Research Institute (SMRI) is a nonprofit organization supporting research on the causes and treatments of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The organization operates a comprehensive research infrastructure comprising grant programs (Treatment Trial Grants supporting 40-50 ongoing clinical trials), a Brain Research Tissue Repository with multiple brain collections totaling over 300 specimens, and the Stanley Neuropathology Consortium Integrative Database (SNCID) for data mining. The product portfolio includes five distinct brain collections (Neuropathology Consortium, Array Collection, Depression Collection, Inferior Parietal Collection, and New Collection) containing postmortem brain tissue and associated datasets (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, epigenomics), the Repurposed Drug Database covering 9 drugs for potential therapeutic use, and the SNCID web platform enabling researchers to explore and analyze these datasets. SMRI's resources span from basic research materials to clinical trial support across over 30 countries with more than $550 million in research funding since 1989.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Stanley Neuropathology Consortium Integrative Database (SNCID): A web-based integrative database tool for exploring and mining Stanley Neuropathology datasets including neuropathology, microarray, methylation, SNP and RNA-seq data from multiple brain areas.

Products and services

• Treatment Trial Grants

Quantifiable outcome

• Supported over $550 million in research across 30+ countries since 1989
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Stanley Neurovirology Lab at Johns Hopkins UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSMRI-supported laboratory conducting neurovirology research related to psychiatric disorders. One of the three main supported organizations under the SMRI umbrella.
• The Stanley Program for Epidemiology, Prevention, and Treatment of Schizophrenia (SPECS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSMRI-supported program focused on epidemiology, prevention, and treatment of schizophrenia. One of three major supported organizations.
• The Treatment Advocacy CentercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating the severe and persistent neglect of individuals with severe mental illness. Collaborates with SMRI on research and advocacy.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• McLean Hospital: A Harvard-affiliated psychiatric hospital with significant research programs on schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression, including brain tissue resources. Comparable to SMRI in mission focus and translational psychiatric research.
• Lieber Institute for Brain Development: A nonprofit brain research institute that maintains extensive postmortem human brain collections for psychiatric and developmental disorder research. Directly comparable to SMRI's brain tissue repository and integrated genomics approach.
• Treatment Advocacy Center: A nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating barriers to treatment for severe mental illness. Listed as an SMRI-supported organization and a closely aligned peer in advocacy for schizophrenia and bipolar patients.
• Brain & Behavior Research Foundation: Formerly NARSAD, this is a nonprofit that funds cutting-edge psychiatric research grants — directly comparable to SMRI's mission of grantmaking for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder research, including NARSAD grants listed among SMRI's resource partners.

Broad incumbents

• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): The largest U.S. government funder of mental health research, including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. NIMH overlaps with SMRI's research funding mission but operates at much larger scale with intramural and extramural programs.
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute: A large biomedical research organization supporting investigator-driven science including neuroscience. Comparable to SMRI as a private nonprofit funding mechanism for biomedical research, though with broader disease scope.
• Wellcome Trust: One of the world's largest biomedical research charities, funding mental health and neuroscience work. Comparable to SMRI as a global nonprofit research funder, though at vastly greater scale and across many disease areas.

Emerging players

• NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness): The largest U.S. grassroots mental health organization, focused on education, advocacy, and support for individuals affected by mental illness including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Comparable to SMRI's patient and provider resource mission, though primarily advocacy-driven.
• Allen Institute for Brain Science: A nonprofit that generates large-scale public brain science datasets and atlases. Comparable to SMRI's open data philosophy and database-driven research model, though with a broader neuroscience scope.
• Psychiatric Genomics Consortium: An international collaboration performing meta-analyses of genomic data for psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Comparable to SMRI's genomics data mining focus, but operates as a federated consortium rather than a single repository.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments4 records

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Frequently asked questions about Stanley Medical Research Institute