The Perl-UNC Prize is awarded internationally in the field of

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

. Its purpose is two-fold: to recognize researchers for outstanding discoveries and seminal insights in neuroscience and to celebrate the strength of the neuroscience research program at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

Creation

Edward Perl (1926-2014), a neuroscientist and former professor of Cell Biology & Physiology at the

University of North Carolina School of Medicine The University of North Carolina School of Medicine is a professional school within the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It offers a Doctor of Medicine degree along with combined Doctor of Medicine / Doctor of Philosophy or Doctor of M ...

, established the prize in 2000 to recognize outstanding scientific contribution in neuroscience. He had envisioned that the selection committee would choose recipients "from a broad field of neuroscience ranging from development to molecular mechanisms to integrative function." Perl further noted that " e prize allows me to acknowledge the university for the opportunities it has given me" and that it "would help call attention to the institution and our strength in neuroscience." As of 2017, six recipients of the Perl-UNC Prize have gone on to win

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

s in

Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Pr ...

(

Linda Buck Linda Brown Buck (born January 29, 1947) is an American biologist best known for her work on the olfactory system. She was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with Richard Axel, for their work on olfactory receptors. She ...

Richard Axel Richard Axel (born July 2, 1946) is an American molecular biologist and university professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His work on the olfactory system won hi ...

May-Britt Moser May-Britt Moser (born 4 January 1963) is a Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist, who is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She and her then-husband, Edvard Moser, share ...

Edvard Moser Edvard Ingjald Moser (; born 27 April 1962) is a Norwegian professor of psychology and neuroscience at thKavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. In 2005, he and May-Brit ...

) or

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

(

Roger Tsien Roger Yonchien Tsien (pronounced , "'' CHEN''"'';'' February 1, 1952 – August 24, 2016) was an American biochemist. He was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...

Roderick MacKinnon Roderick MacKinnon (born February 19, 1956) is an American biophysicist, neuroscientist, and businessman. He is a professor of Molecular Neurobiology and Biophysics at Rockefeller University who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Peter ...

). Three winners of the Perl-UNC Prize (

Thomas Jessell Thomas Michael Jessell (2 August 1951 – 28 April 2019) was the Claire Tow Professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at Columbia University in New York and a prominent developmental neuroscientist. In 2018, Columbia University announce ...

, Cori Bargmann,

Marcus Raichle Marcus E. Raichle (born March 15, 1937) is an American neurologist at the Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Missouri. He is a professor in the Department of Radiology with joint appointments in Neurology, Neurobiology and B ...

) have been awarded the

Kavli Prize The Kavli Prize was established in 2005 as a joint venture of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Kavli Foundation. It honors, supports, and recognizes scientists for outstand ...

in Neuroscience.

Recipients

Source
UNC Neuroscience Center
* 2000

David Julius David Jay Julius (born November 4, 1955) is an American physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate known for his work on molecular mechanisms of pain sensation and heat, including the characterization of the TRPV1 and TRPM8 receptors that detect ca ...

, ''Cloning the Capsaicin Receptor''. * 2001

, ''Solving the Crystal Structure of the Potassium Channel''. * 2002

and

, ''Discovery of the Family of Olfactory Receptor Proteins''. * 2003 Yves Barde, ''Discovery of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor''. * 2004

, ''Development of Tools for Monitoring Signaling in Living Nerve Cells''. * 2005

Robert Malenka Robert C. Malenka (born June 21, 1955) is a Nancy Friend Pritzker Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He is also the director of the Nancy Friend Pritzker Laboratory in the Stanford Medical Center. He is a mem ...

and

Roger Nicoll Roger A. Nicoll (born 1941) is an American neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco where he is professor at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology. Nicoll grew up in Princeton, New Jersey. He studied biology and ...

, ''Discovery of Mechanisms that Underlie Long-term Synaptic Plasticity''. * 2006 Solomon H. Snyder, ''Identification of Opiate Receptors in the Brain''. * 2007

Huda Zoghbi Huda Yahya Zoghbi (Arabic: هدى الهبري الزغبي ''Hudā al-Hibrī az-Zughbī''; born 1954), born Huda El-Hibri, is a Lebanese-born American geneticist, and a professor at the Departments of Molecular and Human Genetics, Neuroscience a ...

, ''Discovery of the Genetic Basis of Rett Syndrome''. * 2008

Michael E. Greenberg Michael Greenberg (born May 25, 1954 in Miami Beach, Florida) is an American neuroscientist who specializes in molecular neurobiology. He served as the Chair of the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School from 2008 to 2022. Biogr ...

, ''Discovery of Signaling Pathways Underlying Activity-Regulated Gene Transcription''. * 2009

, ''Defining Molecular Mechanisms that Regulate the Development of Neural Circuits''. * 2010

Catherine Dulac Catherine Dulac is a French-American biologist. She is the Higgins Professor in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University, where she served as department chair from 2007 to 2013. She is also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical ...

and Cori Bargmann, ''Discovery of Chemosensitive Circuits that Regulate Social Behaviors''. * 2011

Karl Deisseroth Karl Alexander Deisseroth (born November 18, 1971) is an American scientist. He is the D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University. He is known for creating and developing the technolo ...

Edward Boyden Edward S. Boyden is an American neuroscientist at MIT. He is the Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology, a faculty member in the MIT Media Lab and an associate member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. In 2018 he was named a Howard H ...

, and

Feng Zhang Feng Zhang (; born October 22, 1981) is a Chinese-American biochemist. Zhang currently holds the James and Patricia Poitras Professorship in Neuroscience at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and in the departments of Brain and Cognitive ...

, ''Development and Application of Optogenetics for Studying Neural Circuit Functions''. * 2012

and

, ''Discovery of Key Principles Governing the Internal Representation of Space and Episodic Memory''. * 2013

, ''Discoveries Relating to the "Default Mode Network" of Brain Function''. * 2014 David W. Tank, ''Discovery of Fundamental Mechanisms of Neural Computation''. * 2015 Christopher A. Walsh, ''Discovery of Genes and Mechanisms Regulating Human Cortical Development''. * 2016 David J. Anderson, ''Discovery of neural circuit mechanisms controlling emotional behaviors''. * 2017 Doris Tsao and Winrich Freiwald, ''Discovery of brain mechanisms of face recognition''. * 2018 S. Lawrence Zipursky and Joshua R. Sanes, ''Discovery of cell-surface proteins that control circuit assembly in the visual system'' * 2019 Lily Jan and

Yuh-Nung Jan Yuh Nung Jan (; born January 11, 1947) is a Taiwanese-American neuroscientist. He is the Jack and DeLoris Lange Professor of Molecular Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, where he works together with his wife Lily Jan as ...

, ''Discovery and functional characterization of potassium channels''

Selection committee

Current members are William Snider (Chair), Tom Albright,

Vanessa Ruta Vanessa Julia Ruta, Ph.D. is an American neuroscientist known for her work on the structure and function of chemosensory circuits underlying innate and learned behaviors in the fly ''Drosophila melanogaster.'' She is the Gabrielle H. Reem and Her ...

, Julie Kauer, Regina Carelli, Ben Philpot, and Mark Zylka.

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

Perl-UNC Prize, UNC Neuroscience Center
University of North Carolina Neuroscience awards Awards established in 2000

Creation

Recipients

Selection committee

See also

References

External links