National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

2016 Breakthrough Prizes Feature Three Neuroscientists

Last week, the Breakthrough Prize organization announced the recipients of the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics. The 3^rd annual Breakthrough Prize Awards Ceremony awarded 1,370 physicists, one mathematician, five life scientists, and one high school student with a combined total of $21.9 million.

This year is a proud one for brain science: three of the five recipients of the 2016 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences were neuroscientists! Dr. Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Dr. Edward S. Boyden of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology each received $3 million for their pioneering work in optogenetics, a set of tools and techniques for programming of neurons to express light-activated ion channels and pumps, so that their electrical activity can be controlled by light.. Deisseroth and Boyden’s technique has truly transformed the way neuroscientists study brain circuitry and set the stage for The BRAIN Initiative®. ... More Message »