PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Daniel Weinberger, M.D. and Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, M.D., Ph.D., M.Sc., both leading researchers with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and Jay Adam Gingrich, M.D., Ph.D., of New York's Columbia University, received the Roche/Nature Medicine Prize for Translational Neuroscience during the inaugural Roche/Nature Medicine Translational Neuroscience Symposium held September 18-19 in Palo Alto, CA.
Weinberger, director of the NIMH Genes, Cognition and Psychosis Program, was presented the Senior Prize which is accompanied by a $25,000 award, while Meyer-Lindenberg, co-director of that program's Neuroimaging Core Facility and investigator and chief of the Unit for Systems Neuroscience in Psychiatry shared the Junior Prize, which is accompanied by a $10,000 award, with Gingrich, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia.
"Recent advances in molecular and cognitive neuroscience have created unprecedented means for the study of psychiatric disorders. As the discipline matures, we have a unique opportunity to translate scientific findings into therapeutic strategies that will help millions of patients worldwide," said Luca Santarelli, head of Central Nervous System Research, Roche Palo Alto. "The three recipients of the Roche/Nature Medicine Prize for Translational Neuroscience have made significant contributions to this growing field."
To be considered for the awards, each recipient must be a recognized investigator in the field of translational neuroscience with a focus on neuropsychiatry, as well as a major contributor of either preclinical or clinical findings to the understanding of the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders. In addition, their contributions should be considered as paving the way for new mechanism-based medicines. This year's winners were selected by a distinguished scientific committee from a group of impressive candidates.
About the Recipients
Daniel Weinberger received the Senior Prize for his research on schizophrenia. He is the leading researcher on prefrontal cortex deficits in schizophrenia and has assembled one of the world's most ingenious teams for the study of developmental and genetic factors in this mental disorder. His work has defined dysfunctional neural systems in the brain that appear to underlie many of the clinical symptoms of the illness, and he was instrumental in focusing research on the role of abnormal brain development as a risk factor for schizophrenia. In 2003, Science magazine highlighted the genetic research of his lab as the second biggest scientific breakthrough of the year, second to the origins of the cosmos.
"Daniel Weinberger and his team have provided exquisite insights into the perceptional and executive deficits in people with schizophrenia using a broad spectrum of techniques ranging from molecular genetics to functional brain imaging," said Santarelli. "The importance of his contributions to an understanding of the cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are rivaled by the insights that he has obtained into the genetic basis of this disease. His multidisciplinary approach to the study of this mental disorder has led him to stand head and shoulders above the rest of the field, which is why we are delighted to present this award as a small token of our recognition for his work."
Board certified in both psychiatry and neurology, Weinberger attended college at the John Hopkins University and medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. He did residencies in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and in neurology at George Washington University. He is the recipient of many honors and awards, including the NIH Directors Award, The William K. Warren Medical Research Institute Award, and the Lieber Prize of the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders. He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, is past president of the Society of Biological Psychiatry, and immediate past president of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He sits on the editorial boards of 16 scientific journals, has published over 400 scientific articles, and authored or edited six books.
Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, co-recipient of the Junior Prize, has produced support for two hypotheses about the pathophysiology of schizophrenia: a pronounced disturbance of regional brain interactions and a connection between dopamine and prefrontal cortex function. His work has also identified an imaging marker of schizophrenia, and has influenced thinking beyond this disease, as he has made significant discoveries about the childhood disorder known as Williams Syndrome. Meyer-Lindenberg also pioneered an innovative genetic approach to define human circuits for social dysfunction under genetic control.
"Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg is a pioneer in the field of imaging genetics, applying neuroimaging methods to understand how genetic risk for mental disease is translated into human structure and function. His work has enabled a translational approach to intractable questions in psychiatry and has had a significant impact on the field by changing the way in which biological mechanisms are viewed and pursued in psychiatry," said Santarelli.
Meyer-Lindenberg has received many awards, including the National Institutes of Health Fellows Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research. He sits on the editorial board of several scientific journals and has published dozens of scientific papers and books.
Jay Adam Gingrich, co-recipient of the Junior Prize, was selected for his studies employing genetic and pharmacological manipulations to understand the role of genes conferring vulnerability or resilience to neuropsychiatric disorders. Board certified in adult psychiatry, he received his B.S. degree from the University of Kansas and his M.D. and Ph.D. from Duke University. He, too, is the recipient of numerous awards including the Gatsby Brain Circuitry Research Award and the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention Award. He has authored more than a dozen articles and book chapters.
"Jay Gingrich has worked for several years in the area of translational neuroscience of psychiatric disorders. In particular, his work has helped establish a developmental hypothesis for the way in which gene variants influence vulnerability to depression and schizophrenia. His work has also helped define the role of cortical 5-HT2A receptor-signaling in anxiety states and in the effects of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD," said Santarelli. "He has pioneered the use of mouse genetic strategies to permit the region- specific restoration of gene expression on a "knockout" background. These advances hold promise to help develop more nuanced understanding of the circuitry underlying normal and abnormal brain function."
Inaugural Symposium
Weinberger, Meyer-Lindenberg and Gingrich were among more than a dozen presenters at the first Roche/Nature Medicine Translational Neuroscience Symposium, where they received their prizes. The symposium, sponsored by Roche and Nature Medicine, focused on translational neuroscience and how the interface between basic science and clinical science can help create new medicines for neuropsychiatric disorders. The event featured an outstanding lineup of speakers and experts, including Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel, Ph.D. (Columbia University), Christopher Austin, M.D. (National Human Genome Research Institute), Rene Hen, Ph.D. (Columbia University), Thomas Insel, M.D. (National Institute of Mental Health), Kenneth Kendler, M.D. (Virginia Commonwealth University), David Lewis, M.D. (University of Pittsburgh), Stephen Marder, M.D. (University of California, Los Angeles); Kerry Ressler M.D., Ph.D. (Emory University), Trevor Robbins, Ph.D. (University of Cambridge), and Lorna Role, Ph.D. (Columbia University).
"This was an outstanding gathering, highlighting recent progress in the understanding of schizophrenia, anxiety and depression, as well as the impact of these findings on the identification of therapeutics," said Juan Carlos Lopez, Chief Editor, Nature Medicine. For more information on the symposium, access http://www.nature.com/nm/meetings/roche/index.html
About Roche
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As a supplier of innovative products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people's health and quality of life. Roche is a world leader in diagnostics, the leading supplier of medicines for cancer and transplantation, and a market leader in virology. Located in Palo Alto, Calif., Roche Palo Alto LLC is one of the company's six pharmaceutical research centers. Here scientists focus on the discovery and early clinical development of innovative new medicines to treat diseases including arthritis, asthma and other respiratory diseases, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric diseases, and genitourinary diseases. For more information on Roche, access http://www.roche.com or http://www.rocheusa.com.
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