Health & Medicine November 09, 2026
Advancing the future of mental health research
Huntsman Mental Health Institute -
Huntsman Mental Health Foundation today announced a $35 million gift from Gail Miller and the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation to support the new Translational Research Building at Huntsman Mental Health Institute at the University of Utah.
The gift will help complete the 185,000-square-foot building in the University’s Research Park and equip its labs, imaging and technology. It will also help the Institute recruit and keep top physician-scientists. When the building opens in fall 2027, researchers and clinicians will work together to turn discoveries about mental illness into better care.
Pending approval by the University of Utah Board of Trustees, the building will be named the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Translational Research Building.
“Every person and family deserves access to compassionate, effective mental health care,” said Gail Miller, co-founder of the Larry H. Miller Company and chair of the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation. “We are excited to celebrate the Translational Research Building because it will bring research and clinical care together, helping move new discoveries into better care for people and communities. We are grateful to the Huntsman family and all who share this commitment, and are proud to support an initiative that can advance hope and understanding around mental health.”
The Miller family joins the Huntsman family, who founded the Institute with a $150 million gift in 2019. The Utah Legislature appropriated $90 million for the Translational Research Building in 2021, and construction began in October 2023.
“From the day we broke ground, our family hoped others would join us to partner in this work to help improve and save lives of those struggling with mental illness. We know transformational change won’t happen without unlocking discoveries to better treatments and even cures. We couldn’t ask for better partners in this than the Millers,” said Christena Huntsman Durham, CEO of Huntsman Mental Health Foundation.
“Mental health touches nearly every family in our state. This extraordinary investment from the Miller family, building on the Huntsman family’s vision, will accelerate our ability to turn groundbreaking discoveries into better treatments and better outcomes for people and families,” said Taylor Randall, president of the University of Utah. “This is the promise of a great public research university, translating discoveries into solutions that improve lives in Utah and beyond.”
The building is designed to shorten the path from lab to patient. Scientists and clinicians will work alongside experts in artificial intelligence, public policy, business, and law. Research teams will be grouped into “hubs” around shared problems, with wet labs and computer-based dry labs on the same floors. The building will also house a 7-tesla MRI, a scanner more than twice as powerful as a standard hospital MRI. For example, researchers are using MRI to study whether lower oxygen levels at Utah’s high altitude may help explain the state’s higher rates of depression, and what treatments can best help people whose antidepressants aren’t working.
“For people living with mental illness, getting the right care and support can be a long, difficult process,” said Bob Carter, MD, PhD, Executive Vice President for Health Sciences and CEO of University of Utah Health. “We want to change that. Bringing scientists and clinicians together in this unique research facility means promising discoveries can reach patients sooner.”
Research in the building will cover a range of topics, including suicide prevention, addiction, youth mental health, psychosis and bipolar disorder, and maternal mental health. In suicide prevention, institute researchers draw on the world’s largest set of data on suicide deaths to learn who is most at risk, so families and clinicians can step in sooner.
The building will also be home to the Utah site of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States. The study follows nearly 12,000 young people from ages 9 and 10 into young adulthood. Brain imaging is at its core: by watching how the brain changes as kids grow, researchers can spot early warning signs of mental illness and substance use and help care begin before a crisis.
Researchers will also test new treatments for people who haven’t been helped by standard care. These include focused ultrasound, a noninvasive way to reach deep brain circuits linked to depression and addiction, and psychedelic medicine for hard-to-treat conditions. Teams will use artificial intelligence responsibly to help clinicians identify patients who need help earlier and to ease the workload on providers, giving them more time with patients. Researchers and educators from colleges and universities across Utah will partner with the institute there.
“This gift helps us bring great scientists to Utah and give them what they need to do their best work. The people and families we serve are why it matters,” said W. Brett Graham, M.B.A., M.P.A., president of Huntsman Mental Health Institute.
“We are fortunate to have the Huntsman and Miller families setting an example of prioritizing mental health funding at local and national levels. In the United States, the vast majority of Americans believe our country is in a mental health crisis yet fewer than 2% of charitable dollars go to mental health causes. Their support signals that our children, families, and communities deserve better treatments, care, and cures,” said Miranda Barnard, President of Huntsman Mental Health Foundation.
