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Nov 27, 2013

The Anna-Monika Prize is awarded bi-annually to clinical scientists who have made major contributions to the understanding of the underlining neurobiological mechanisms of depression and who have advanced the pharmacological options for affective disorders. In 2013, the Anna-Monika-Foundation was again privileged to honor a leading researcher for his groundbreaking work in the field.

This year’s Anna-Monika award winner is Prof. Alan F. Schatzberg, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, USA.

Prof. Schatzberg received the prize for his outstanding research into new therapy approaches, especially for the treatment of delusional depression. He is one of the leading North American clinical and scientific psychiatrists. In his research work, he focuses on the interactions between the stress hormone (cortisol) system and dopamine metabolism, both on a basic science basis and in clinical studies. A special merit of Prof. Schatzberg’s work is the early recognition of the significance of antiglucocorticoid therapies, for example with mifepristone (RU486), and their possible introduction into psychiatric practice. This research approach implemented by Prof. Schatzberg and his group was adopted by a number of companies and is undergoing Phase III clinical trials. In addition, Prof. Schatzberg has supported the use of antiglucocorticoid therapeutic methods by systematic neurobiological research, including neuroendocrine studies, genetics, brain imaging as well as studies of cognition and its relationship to cortisol activity. Prof. Schatzberg’s work has contributed both to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of severe depression disorders and to the development of novel treatment approaches.

Anna-Monika Foundation »

Huda Akil, Ph.D., University of Michigan

August 15, 2013

“When I was growing up in Damascus, the notion that a little Syrian girl could become a scientist seemed like an impossible dream,” she wrote in a commentary for the Washington Times. But the little girl with the big dream is now internationally renowned Huda Akil, Ph.D., Gardner C. Quarton Professor of Neurosciences in Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School and co-director and senior research professor at the university’s Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute.

A pioneer of what is now called systems neuroscience, Dr. Akil has made seminal contributions to the understanding of the neurobiology of emotions and the interplay between pain, anxiety, depression, stress, and substance abuse. “Dr. Huda Akil’s scientific work has transformed our understanding of the molecular, anatomical, and behavioral mechanisms of emotionality,” said James O. Woolliscroft, M.D., dean and Lyle C. Roll Professor of Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School.

Read the announcement at AAMC »

Karl Deisseroth among the prize winners

March 11, 2013

The Brain Prize – Denmark’s 1 million euro brain research prize – is awarded to six leading scientists for the development of ‘optogenetics’, a revolutionary technique that advances our understanding of the brain and its disorders.

The names of the prize winners, Austrian Gero Miesenböck, Germans Ernst Bamberg, Peter Hegemann, and Georg Nagel, and Americans Ed Boyden and Karl Deisseroth, were announced on Monday 11 March 2013 in Copenhagen.

Together these scientists laid the foundations for a revolutionary technique – optogenetics – which will provide us with entirely new, fundamental knowledge of the complicated functions of the brain.

Optogenetics makes it easier to investigate diseases of the brain such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, pain disorders, schizophrenia, ADHD and addiction. It will play a significant role in the understanding of these disorders and, over time, in the development of a treatment for them.

Read the press release at the Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation »

Huda Akil and Stanley Watson receive Institute of Medicine’s Sarnat Prize

October 15, 2012

A pair of University of Michigan mental health researchers who are partners in both research and life have won a prestigious national prize for their studies on the biological roots of emotions, mental illness and substance abuse.

Huda Akil, Ph.D., and Stanley J. Watson, M.D., Ph.D., who co-direct the U-M Medical School’s Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute (MBNI), were awarded the 2012 Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health today by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The prize, which consists of a medal and $20,000, was presented at the IOM’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Read the full article at UofMHealth.org »

October 15, 2012

The Institute of Medicine today awarded the 2012 Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health to Huda Akil and Stanley J. Watson, co-directors of the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in recognition of their individual and collaborative efforts to elucidate the neural underpinnings of emotions, mental illnesses, and substance abuse. Akil’s and Watson’s work has revealed key aspects of the molecules and neurobiological circuitry behind pain and stress and substantially expanded understanding of mood disorders, addiction, and other conditions, pointing the way to new targets for treatment and prevention. In addition, they have developed research tools and models that have been widely adopted in the neuroscience field. The Sarnat Prize, which consists of a medal and $20,000, was presented to the pair at IOM’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Read the full press release at NationalAcademies.org »