The Save Toby Project is an effort to honor the life of Tobyn Tylor Pulice by promoting suicide awareness and funding groundbreaking mental health research. Funds raised will support Dr. Leanne Williams and the Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness and their work to accelerate the adoption of precision psychiatry treatments.
Toby was born on August 25, 1999, in Mission Viejo, California. A gifted and passionate learner, he devoted his time to helping others, even raising funds to establish libraries in Ethiopia. He had a witty, satirical sense of humor and was deeply loved as a son, brother, and friend.
Behind his remarkable spirit, Toby fought a silent battle with severe mental illness. Despite seeking therapy, trying various medications, and holding onto hope, the weight of his struggles became too much to bear. On September 21, 2018, just after his nineteenth birthday, Toby’s battle came to an end.
Our project seeks to prevent similar stories by pushing forward precision psychiatry—an approach that identifies the most effective treatments through a person’s unique biology and mental health profile. No one should have to suffer through years of ineffective therapies.
Mental health care today is often a frustrating guessing game. Someone goes to the doctor feeling anxious or depressed, and they are given a medication or therapy based on a checklist of symptoms. If that does not work, they try something else. Then something else. For many people, this trial and error process can take years. All the while, their life, relationships, and sense of hope can begin to fall apart.
Precision psychiatry is a better way forward.
Rather than relying only on what someone says they feel, precision psychiatry looks deeper at the brain itself. Thanks to new breakthroughs in brain science and imaging, we now understand that depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions are closely tied to how specific brain circuits function.
Dr. Leanne Williams is the inaugural Vincent V.C. Woo Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is leading a shift in how we understand and treat mental illness by using neuroscience and brain imaging to build a more precise and personalized approach to care.
Her research focuses on six core brain circuits that shape how we think, feel, and respond to stress. She and her team have developed the first technology to identify mental health “biotypes” based on how these circuits function. This allows treatments to be matched to the individual, not the average. The result is faster relief, fewer side effects, and renewed hope for people who have not responded to traditional care.
The Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness is positioned to become the flagship hub for Brain Health. Located in Silicon Valley, the Center brings together experts across neuroscience, psychology, genetics, engineering, computer science, global health, and artificial intelligence. This powerful collaboration is focused on transforming mental healthcare and promoting healthier lives through science, data, and innovation.
At Save Toby Project, we know how painful it is when someone you love cannot find the right help in time. We believe the future of mental health care should be more accurate, more compassionate, and more personal. That is why we support the work being done in precision psychiatry.
This approach is giving people real answers, not guesses. Real recovery, not more waiting. And most of all, real hope.
Let us build a future where mental health care works for everyone.
