Robert T. Gerlai is a Canadian behaviour geneticist.

Early life and education

Gerlai obtained his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

in 1987 from the

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University ( hu, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, ELTE) is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in Hung ...

and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest.

Career

Gerlai has worked in the biotechnology (

Genentech Genentech, Inc., is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It became an independent subsidiary of Roche in 2009. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent center within R ...

) and biopharmaceutical research industries (

Eli Lilly and Company Eli Lilly and Company is an American pharmaceutical company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with offices in 18 countries. Its products are sold in approximately 125 countries. The company was founded in 1876 by, and named after, Colonel ...

and Saegis Pharmaceuticals) as Senior Scientist and Vice President of Research, and led pre-clinical as well as clinical research teams developing drugs to treat mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's Disease. He also worked at different universities in North America and Europe. He is a Distinguished Professor of behavioral neuroscience at the Department of Psychology at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. The Web of Science lists over 300

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

publications for Gerlai, which have been cited nearly 15000 times, resulting in an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as winn ...

of 62. Gerlai has worked with several different animal species, including

paradise fish The paradise fish, paradise-fish, paradisefish, or paradise gourami (''Macropodus opercularis'') is a species of gourami found in most types of fresh water in East Asia, ranging from the Korean Peninsula to northern Vietnam. This species can ...

and mice. He was among the first to use transgenic mice in the analysis of learning and memory and showed that astrocytes play important roles in synaptic plasticity. He is also known for discovering the role of Eph tyrosine kinases and their ephrin ligands in neuronal plasticity. He is considered a leader of

zebrafish The zebrafish (''Danio rerio'') is a freshwater fish belonging to the minnow family ( Cyprinidae) of the order Cypriniformes. Native to South Asia, it is a popular aquarium fish, frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio (and thus often ...

behavioral neuroscience research, and has been using this species, and studies the effects of alcohol on brain function and behaviour, including social behaviour, fear-anxiety, and learning and memory.

Honours

Gerlai is an elected Fellow of the

International Behavioral Neuroscience Society The International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (IBNS), was founded in 1992. The goal of the IBNS is to "encourage research and education in the field of behavioral neuroscience". Its current president is Mikhail Pletnikov. ''Brain Research Bul ...

, of which he also has been president. He is a member of the

editorial board The editorial board is a group of experts, usually at a publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take. Mass media At a newspaper, the editorial board usually consists of the editorial page editor, a ...

s of ''

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

,'' ''

Genes, Brain and Behavior ''Genes, Brain and Behavior'' (also known as ''G2B'') is a peer-reviewed online-only scientific journal covering research in the fields of behavioural genetics, behavioral, neurogenetics, neural, and psychiatric genetics. It is published by Wiley- ...

'', ''

Neurotoxicology and Teratology ''Neurotoxicology and Teratology'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on the toxicological effects of chemical and physical agents on the nervous system. It was established in 1979 as ''Neurobehavioral Toxicology'', w ...

'', '' Learning and Behavior'', ''

Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences ''Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all aspects of the behavioral sciences. It was established in 2015 and is published by Elsevier as part of their '' Current Opinion'' series of journa ...

'', ''Zebrafish'' and ''F1000''. He is section editor for behavioral neuroscience of '' BMC Neuroscience''. In 2013, Gerlai received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the

International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society The International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society (IBANGS) is a learned society that was founded in 1996. The goal of IBANGS is "promote and facilitate the growth of research in the field of neural behavioral genetics". Profile Mission Th ...

. In 2015, he received the Research Excellence Award from the University of Toronto. In 2019 he received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society and became the John Carlin Roder Distinguished Professor in Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

References

External links

* Behavior geneticists Living people 1960 births Hungarian scientists Canadian neuroscientists Book editors {{Geneticist-stub