There is little doctors can do for those suffering serious brain injuries from car crashes, athletics and battle, other than wait and treat the symptoms, but a collaboration between those who study mental illness and those who treat the disorders offers hope for new therapies.

The first goal of the new Towson, Md-based institute formed by researchers at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development and doctors at Sheppard Pratt Health System is to reformulate an old Parkinson's drug to soothe aggression and aid memory in people suffering from such brain injuries.

Officials expect the institute to eventually translate discoveries of their own and others in genetics and brain functioning into better treatments for those suffering not just head injuries but schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism and other mental illnesses affecting millions of Americans.

"Care has gotten better over the years, and patients are better but not well by a long shot," said Dr. Steven S. Sharfstein, president and CEO of Sheppard Pratt, a century-old mental health system based in Towson that treated more than 60,000 patients in the region last year. "We need breakthroughs."

Sharfstein reached out to the Lieber Institute about two years ago to discuss a collaboration that culminated with each committing $1 million to launch the nonprofit Sheppard Pratt-Lieber Research Institute Inc., which will launch in January on Sheppard Pratt's campus.

Officials hope the venture will accelerate the pace of advancements in mental health, where researchers struggle even to explain the underpinnings of disorders. The pace of discoveries and new therapies in mental illness lags far behind advances for cancer and other diseases in recent decades. They also aim to develop "personalized medicine," treating patients based on their genetic makeup.

While researchers around the world have begun linking gene mutations and specific pathways in the brain to mental illness in the past 10 years, what makes the new institute different is the partnership with a treatment facility, which can provide the electronic records, including DNA and brain images, of thousands of patients, as well as people to participate in studies and benefit more immediately from new and re-purposed medications.

"It's a unique effort to walk the walk everyone talks about, translating science into treatment," said Dr. Daniel R. Weinberger, director and CEO of Lieber, a private center formed four years ago with donations from two philanthropic families and housed in the Johns Hopkins Science and Technology Park.

Making discoveries and turning them into new treatments has been difficult because the brain is the body's most complex organ, said Dr. Ken Duckworth, medical director for the advocacy group National Alliance on Mental Illness. There aren't one or two, but possibly hundreds or thousands of genes linked to mental illnesses, he said.

That offers lots of opportunities, but also lots of chances to fail. "We've been in a drug-discovery recession for the better part of a decade," Duckworth said. "Patients and families welcome any effort to translate the science into better treatments. There is a crying need for more treatment."