With the help of a $55 million donation, UC Irvine will develop a center on campus dedicated to research on depression, where top-notch experts will be recruited to study causes and treatment of the disease.

The money was gifted by Newport Beach resident Audrey Steele Burnand, as part of her estate. The philanthropist, who died in June 2020, earmarked the funds in her will for the specific purpose of establishing a depression research center at UCI.

University officials will use some of the money to bring in faculty “from all over the world,” who “have the same endpoint in mind, which is to help this pretty terrible disease that costs a lot of lives every year in the form of suicide,” said Michael Stamos, dean of the School of Medicine at UCI.

The objective is to pursue research that covers “the entire spectrum,” from studying the “basic fundamental biological science” of depression, to translating that research into potential treatments, Pramod Khargonekar, vice chancellor for research, said.

The work done through the center will touch on a host of disciplines, incorporating biological sciences, engineering and social sciences, he noted.

The research hub will be called the Noel Drury M.D. Depression Research Center, named after a psychiatrist who lived in Newport Beach and worked at Hoag Hospital. Steele Burnand knew Drury, and was keen on having the center bear his name, UCI spokesman Tom Vasich said.

Khargonekar called this moment a “once in a generation opportunity” to establish a leading research center, saying he hoped “to look back in five or 10 years and say, 2022 marks the beginning of research in depression at UCI that is benefiting people afflicted by this disease and their loved ones.”

Depression is one of the most prevalent disorders in the U.S., according to the National Institute of Mental Health. In 2020, an estimated roughly 8% of adults and 17% of adolescents in the country experienced a major depressive episode, the institute reported. The illness, which can be inherited, will afflict about one in six people during their lifetime, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

Frank LaFerla, dean of the School of Biological Sciences at UCI, said the donation from Steele Burnand “gives us an opportunity to really make an impact on the community.”

UC Irvine has a history of pursuing innovative brain-focused research, LaFerla said. It was the first institution in the world to create an academic department focused on studying the brain, with the 1964 founding of its neuroscience department.

When LaFerla was contacted several years ago by Steele Burnand’s team about her desire to donate to the university and her interest in depression, he put together a proposal “where I talked about the history of neuroscience on this campus, and how we had evolved and had so many major strengths in neurological disorders, ranging from Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s disease, to stroke and epilepsy,” he said.

“I’d said it would be natural for us to migrate into mental health and depression, given our background here.”

He sent in the proposal, but no response came, he said.

“And then (we) found out that when she passed, she had left us in her in her will, and donated this incredible amount of money to establish this depression center,” he said.

The donation will be placed in an investment fund, the annual income of which will go toward the center.

The future research hub “gives us another conduit by which the university can be conducting research that matters to the community because depression is a worldwide problem,” LaFerla added.

The center could be housed in the Falling Leaves Foundation Medical Innovation Building, a site for medical research that will likely go up on UCI’s main campus in about three years, Stamos said.

Once the site is up and running, Stamos sees UCI becoming a leader in depression studies.

“It could take five years,” he said. “And it’s mainly because you bring in, you know, the right people, the star power, the faculty who are really doing the cutting edge work to discover and teach and train and heal.”

Steele Burnand, daughter of Harry and Grace Steele – who donated $165 million over their lives through their foundation – set aside another $2.6 million for the UCI’s desert research facility in Borrego Springs.

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