January 7, 2026
Dr Lena Palaniyappan has been awarded the 2025 Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize for Mental Health Research, a national award that recognises major scientific innovations.
This prestigious prize acknowledges Dr Palaniyappan’s work to transform the early detection and treatment of psychosis, one of the most serious and resource-intensive mental illnesses.
Understanding and preventing psychosis in young people
Psychosis often appears during adolescence, compromising education, careers and personal relationships. Despite current treatments, 85% of patients with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders never fully resume their educational or professional activities. Existing interventions control symptoms but do not permanently alter the course of the disease.
« This recognition for our team’s work is not just an accolade—it’s fuel for a vision for integrative mental health research in Canada. It will help accelerate our efforts to predict youth-onset severe illnesses like psychosis early, treat them precisely, and understand them more completely. That means hope and compassion for patients and families. »
Dr. Palaniyappan’s mission is clear: ‘You can’t prevent what you can’t predict.’ His research focuses on prediction and prevention, with the goal of delaying or even completely stopping the onset of psychosis so that young people can continue their education, build careers, and develop lasting supportive relationships.
Disrupting scientific innovation
Dr Palaniyappan is focusing on disruptive scientific innovation by developing multidisciplinary partnerships and flagship projects: the largest 7-Tesla neuroimaging dataset on first-episode schizophrenia, the global DISCOURSE network using artificial intelligence for early detection of psychotic symptoms, and the integration of experts with lived experience of the illness for relevant knowledge transfer.
Through these approaches, Dr Palaniyappan and his team are helping to redefine research on psychosis and mental health in young people, offering more precise and targeted interventions.