Mark F. Bear (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, USA)David J. Porteous (University of
Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK) andThomas Bourgeron (Institut
Pasteur - CNRS, Paris, France)
The 26th Neuronal Plasticity Prize of the Fondation Ipsen has
been awarded to three scientists for their pioneering work in the
domain of genes, synapses and psychiatric disorders: Mark F. Bear
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA), David J.
Porteous (University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK) and Thomas
Bourgeron (Institut Pasteur - CNRS, Paris, France). The prize has
been awarded on July 8th, 2015 at the IBRO World Congress
(International Brain Research Organisation) in Rio de Janeiro by an
international jury led by Nikos Logothetis (Max Planck Institute
for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany).
About the laureates
Mark F. Bear is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute, and Picower Professor of Neuroscience in The
Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Brain and
Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Bear
served as Director of The Picower Institute from 2007 to 2009.
Prior to moving to MIT in 2003, Dr. Bear was on the faculty of
Brown University School of Medicine for 17 years. After receiving
his B.S. degree from Duke University, he earned his Ph.D. degree in
neurobiology at Brown. He took postdoctoral training from Wolf
Singer at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt,
Germany, and from Leon Cooper at Brown. Bear’s laboratory has
substantially advanced knowledge of how cerebral cortex is modified
by experience. He made fundamental discoveries on bidirectional
synaptic plasticity, metaplasticity, the molecular basis of
amblyopia (a cause of visual disability in children), and the
pathophysiology of fragile X syndrome (the most common inherited
cause of intellectual disability and autism). He has been at the
forefront of the efforts to translate knowledge of autism
pathophysiology into new treatments.
David J. Porteous is Chair of Human Molecular Genetics
and Medicine at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine
(www. igmm.ed.ac.uk ), Edinburgh, a world ‘top 20’ University. He
is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal College of
Physicians (Edinburgh), the Academy of Medical Sciences and EMBO.
In 2013, he was awarded the OBE for contributions to science by the
Queen. For over 20 years, he has used genetics and genomics to
identify genes that determine the risk of developing mental
illness, most notably the discovery of the DISC1 gene in 2000. This
work established a new paradigm in psychiatric genetics of ‘one
gene, several disorders’ and is now recognized as one of the most
informative findings in the field (Science Magazine Breakthrough of
the Year, 2005). In 2003, he established Generation Scotland, a
cohort of 24,000 participants in 7,000 family groups who have been
examined for a wide range of medically relevant traits, including
personality, mood and mental health. He is now investigating the
genetic and environment factors that determine risk and resilience
to major depression disorder as a first step towards predictive and
precision medicine.
Thomas Bourgeron has started his research career
investigating mitochondria first in plant and then in neurological
diseases, he moved to the Institut Pasteur in Paris to pursue his
interests in the genetics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In
2003, his group published the first mutations associated with ASD
linking genes and synapses to this complex condition. In 2008, he
became Professor at the University Paris Diderot and Director of
the Unit on Human Genetics and Cognitive Functions in the
Neuroscience Department of the Institut Pasteur. In 2014 he has
been elected at the French Académie des Sciences. His group
includes geneticists, neurobiologists and clinicians to study the
genetic susceptibility to ASD. Their present research is focused on
the genetic architecture of ASD. They are combining whole genome
sequencing technologies with original phenotyping approaches using
brain imaging, biochemistry, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)
as well as clinical evaluations of the patients. This
multidisciplinary group aims to provide knowledge-based discoveries
for a better diagnostic, care and integration of individuals with
ASD.
About the Neuronal Plasticity
Prize
Founded in 1990, the Neuronal Plasticity Prize of La Fondation
Ipsen has been awarded to renowned specialists: Albert Aguayo
(Montréal, 1990), Anders Bj�rklund (Lund, 1990), Fred Gage (La
Jolla, 1990), Ursula Bellugi (La Jolla, 1991), Wolf Singer
(Frankfurt, 1990), Torsten Wiesel (New York, 1991), Philippe Ascher
(Paris, 1992), Kjell Fuxe (Stockholm, 1992), Terje Lomo (Oslo,
1992), Per Andersen (Oslo, 1993), Masao Ito (Wako Saitama, 1993),
Constantino Sotelo (Paris, 1993), Mariano Barbacid (Princeton,
1994), Yves Barde (Planegg-Martinsried, 1994), Hans Thoenen
(Planegg-Martinsried, 1994), Jacques Mehler (Paris, 1995), Brenda
Milner (Montreal, 1995), Mortimer Mishkin (Bethesda, 1995),
Friedrich Bonhoeffer (Tubingen, 1996), Corey Goodman (Berkeley,
1996), Marc Tessier-Lavigne (San Francisco, 1996), Antonio Damasio
(Iowa City, 1997), Richard Frackowiac (London, 1997), Michael
Merzenich (San Francisco, 1997), Heinrich Betz (Frankfurt, 1998),
Gerald Fischbach (Boston, 1998), Uel McMahan (Stanford, 1998),
Masakazu Konishi (Pasadena, 1999), Peter Marler (Davis, 1999),
Fernando Nottebohm (Millbrook, 1999), Tomas H�kfelt (Stockholm,
2000), Lars Olson (Stockholm, 2000), Lars Terenius (Stockholm,
2000), Albert Galaburda (Boston, 2001), John Morton (Londres,
2001), Elisabeth Spelke (Cambridge, USA, 2001), Arturo
Alvarez-Buylla (San Francisco, 2002), Ronald Mc Kay (Bethesda,
2002), Sam Weiss (Calgary, 2002), François Clarac (Marseille,
2003), Sven Grillner (Stockholm, 2003), Serge Rossignol (Montréal,
2003), James Gusella (Boston, 2004), Jean-Louis Mandel (Strasbourg,
2004), Huda Y. Zoghbi (Houston, 2004), Ann Graybiel (Cambridge,
USA, 2005), Trevor Robbins (Cambridge, UK, 2005), Wolfram Schultz
(Cambridge, UK, 2005, Eckhart D. Gundelfinger (Magdeburg, 2006),
Mary B. Kennedy (Pasadena, 2006), Morgan Sheng (Cambridge, USA,
2006), Nikos K. Logothetis (Tübingen, 2007), Keiji Tanaka (Wako,
2007), Giacomo Rizzolati (Parma, 2007), Jean-Pierre Changeux
(Paris, 2008), Peter W. Kalivas (Charleston 2008), Eric J. Nestler
(Dallas, 2008), Alim-Louis Benabid (Grenoble, 2009), Apostolos P.
Georgopoulos (Minneapolis, 2009) , Miguel A. L. Nicolelis (Durham,
2009), Thomas Insel (Bethesda, 2010), Bruce Mc Ewen (New York,
2010), Donald Pfaff (New York, 2010), Helen Neville (Eugene, 2011),
Isabelle Peretz (Montreal, 2011), Robert Zatorre (Montreal, 2011),
Catherine Dulac (Boston, 2012), Richard G. Morris (Edinburgh,
2012), J. David Sweatt (Birmingham, 2012), Tim V.P. Bliss (London,
2013), Richard G. M. Morris (Edinburgh, 2013), Yadin Dudai
(Rehovot, 2013), Barry J. Everitt (Cambridge, UK, 2014), George F.
Koob (La Jolla, 2014) and Michel Le Moal (Bordeaux, 2014).
The jury: Nikos Logothetis (Max-Planck Institute for
Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany) President, Alim-Louis
Benabid (CEA, CHU de Grenoble, Inserm, Université Joseph Fourier,
Grenoble, France), Joël Bockaert (CNRS UMR 5203, Montpellier,
France), Alexis Brice (CRICM UMRS 975 - Hôpital de la Pitié
Salpêtrière, Paris, France), Yves Christen (Fondation IPSEN, Paris,
France), Stanislas Dehaene (Centre NeuroSpin, CEA/SAC/DSV/I2BM,
Gif-sur-Yvette, France), Kjell Fuxe (Karolinska Institutet,
Stockholm, Sweden), Fred Gage (Salk Institute for Biological
Studies, La Jolla, USA), Ann Graybiel (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, USA), Wolf Singer (Max-Planck Institute for
Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany).
About the Fondation
Ipsen
Established in 1983 under the aegis of the Fondation de France,
the mission of the Fondation Ipsen is to contribute to the
development and dissemination of scientific knowledge. The
long-standing action of the Fondation Ipsen aims at fostering the
interaction between researchers and clinical practitioners, which
is indispensable due to the extreme specialization of these
professions. The ambition of the Fondation Ipsen is to initiate a
reflection about the major scientific issues of the forthcoming
years. It has developed an important international network of
scientific experts who meet regularly at meetings known as
Colloques Médecine et Recherche, dedicated to six main themes:
Alzheimer's disease, neurosciences, longevity, endocrinology, the
vascular system and cancer science. Moreover the Fondation Ipsen
has started since 2007 several meetings in partnership with the
Salk Institute, the Karolinska Institutet, the Massachusetts
General Hospital, the Days of Molecular Medicine Global Foundation
as well as with the science journals Nature, Cell and Science. The
Fondation Ipsen produced several hundred publications; more than
250 scientists and biomedical researchers have been awarded prizes
and research grants.www.fondation-ipsen.org
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