Institute News: Announcements

McGovern Institute Scolnick Prize awarded to David Julius

Anne Trafton |

The McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT announced today that David Julius, a physiologist at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), will be the 2007 recipient of the Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience. The Scolnick prize is awarded each year by the McGovern Institute to recognize an individual who has made outstanding advances in the field of neuroscience. Dr. Julius, who a is a professor and vice chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at USCF, receives the 2007 prize for his discovery of the molecular receptors for temperature and inflammatory pain.

“David Julius has transformed our understanding of temperature perception and pain”, says McGovern Institute director Robert Desimone. “His work is of great importance for basic neuroscience and medicine, and we are very pleased to honor his groundbreaking contributions through this award.”

It has been known for many years that capsaicin, the substance that gives chili peppers their hot taste, interacts specifically with pain sensitive neurons. Building on this observation in a landmark 1997 paper, Dr. Julius was able to identify the molecular receptor for capsaicin and to demonstrate that it is specifically expressed in a subset of sensory neurons, now recognized as key components of the pain pathway. He also showed that the receptor, known as TRPV1, is a heat-sensitive ion channel, with a temperature threshold that corresponds with the point at which we start to perceive warm stimuli as painful.

Dr. Julius has continued to study TRPV1 and related channels, and in more recent work has identified the receptor for menthol, a plant-derived substance that produces a cooling sensation. He showed that the menthol receptor responds to cold temperatures, thereby proving that the TRP family of ion channels constitutes the fundamental mechanism for temperature sensation in mammals.

In addition to explaining how we perceive temperature, Dr. Julius has made major contributions to our understanding of pain. By showing that TRP ion channels are activated by a variety of chemicals that are released by inflamed tissue, as well as noxious chemical agents such as spider toxins and mustard oils, Dr. Julius has established these channels as polymodal receptors that allow us to detect, through pain, the presence of inflammation or injury as well as extremes of temperature. His work has had a great impact not only in basic neuroscience but also in the pharmaceutical industry, where TRP channels have emerged as important potential targets for the development of novel analgesic drugs.

The McGovern Institute will award the Scolnick Prize to Dr. Julius on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 4:00 pm. Dr. Julius will deliver a lecture entitled “From Peppers to Peppermints: Natural Products as Probes of the Pain Pathway”, followed by a reception, at the McGovern Institute in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Complex, 43 Vassar Street (building 46, room 3002) in Cambridge. The event is free and open to the public.

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About the Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience

The Scolnick Prize, awarded annually by the McGovern Institute, is named in honor of Dr. Edward M. Scolnick who stepped down as President of Merck Research Laboratories in December 2002, after holding Merck’s top research post for 17 years. Dr Scolnick is now an associate member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and also serves as a member of the McGovern Institute’s governing board. The prize, which is endowed through a gift from Merck to the McGovern Institute, consists of a $50,000 award, plus an inscribed gift and is given each year to one recipient.

About the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT

The McGovern Institute is a research and teaching institute committed to advancing human understanding and communications. The goal of the McGovern Institute is to investigate and ultimately understand the biological basis of all higher brain function in humans. The McGovern Institute conducts integrated research in neuroscience, genetic and cellular neurobiology, cognitive science, computation, and related areas.

By determining how the brain works, from the level of gene expression in individual neurons to the interrelationships between complex neural networks, the McGovern Institute’s efforts work to improve human health, discover the basis of learning and recognition, and enhance education and communication. The McGovern Institute contributes to the most basic knowledge of the fundamental mysteries of human awareness, decisions, and actions.

For additional information, please go to http://web.mit.edu/mcgovern.

McGovern Institute to present inaugural Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience Research

Anne Trafton |

The Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience Research will be awarded on Friday April 23rd at the McGovern Institute at MIT, a leading research and teaching institute committed to advancing understanding of the human mind and communications. According to Dr. Phillip A. Sharp, Director of the Institute, this annual research prize will recognize outstanding discoveries or significant advances in the field of neuroscience.

The inaugural prize will be presented to Dr. Masakazu Konishi, Bing Professor of Behavioral Biology at the California Institute of Technology. As part of the day’s events, Dr. Konishi will present a free public lecture, “Non-linear steps to high stimulus selectivity in different sensory systems” at 1:30 PM on Friday, April 23rd at MIT (building E25, room 111.) Following the lecture, The McGovern Institute is hosting an invitation-only reception and dinner honoring Dr. Konishi at the MIT Faculty Club. Speakers for the evening award presentation include: Dr. Sharp; Patrick J. McGovern, Founder and Chairman of International Data Group (IDG) and trustee of MIT and the Institute; Edward Scolnick, former President of Merck Research Laboratories; and Torsten Wiesel, President Emeritus of Rockefeller University.

“I am pleased, on behalf of the McGovern Institute, to recognize the important work that Dr. Mark Konishi is doing,” said Dr. Sharp. “Dr. Konishi is being recognized for his fundamental discoveries concerning mechanisms in the brain for sound location such as a neural topographic map of auditory space. Through a combination of his discoveries, the positive influence of his rigorous approach, and the cadre of young scientists he has mentored and trained, Dr. Konishi has improved our knowledge of how the brain works, and the future of neuroscience research. Mark is truly a leader, and well-deserving of this prestigious honor.”

Dr. Konishi received his B.S and M.S degrees from Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan and his Doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 1963. After holding positions at the University of Tubingen and the Max-Planck Institute in Germany, Dr. Konishi returned to the United States, where he worked at the University of Wisconsin and Princeton University before coming to the California Institute of Technology in 1975 as Professor of Biology. He has been the Bing Professor of Behavioral Biology at Caltech since 1980. With scores of publications dating back to 1971, and as the recipient of fourteen previous awards, Dr. Konishi has forged a deserved reputation as an outstanding investigator.

Among his many findings, Dr. Konishi is known for his fundamental discoveries concerning sound location by the barn owl and the song system in the bird. He discovered that in the inferior colliculus of the brain of the barn owl there is a map of auditory space and he identified the computational principles and the neural mechanisms that underlie the workings of the map.

The creation of the Edward M. Scolnick Prize was announced last year, with the first presentation scheduled for 2004. The annual prize consists of an award equal to $50,000 and will be given each year to an outstanding leader in the international neuroscience research community. The McGovern Institute will host a public lecture by Dr. Konishi in the spring of 2004, followed by an award presentation ceremony.

The award is named in honor of Dr. Edward M. Scolnick, who stepped down as President of Merck Research Laboratories in December 2002, after holding Merck & Co., Inc.’s top research post for 17 years. During his tenure, Dr. Scolnick led the discovery, development and introduction of 29 new medicines and vaccines. While many of the medicines and vaccines have contributed to improving patient health, some have revolutionized the ways in which certain diseases are treated.

About the McGovern Institute at MIT

The McGovern Institute at MIT is a research and teaching institute committed to advancing human understanding and communications. The goal of the McGovern Institute is to investigate and ultimately understand the biological basis of all higher brain function in humans. The McGovern Institute conducts integrated research in neuroscience, genetic and cellular neurobiology, cognitive science, computation, and related areas.

By determining how the brain works, from the level of gene expression in individual neurons to the interrelationships between complex neural networks, the McGovern Institute’s efforts work to improve human health, discover the basis of learning and recognition, and enhance education and communication. The McGovern Institute contributes to the most basic knowledge of the fundamental mysteries of human awareness, decisions, and actions.