Robert C. Malenka (born June 21, 1955) is a Nancy Friend Pritzker Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. He is also the director of the Nancy Friend Pritzker Laboratory in the Stanford Medical Center. He is a member of the

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (also known as NASEM or the National Academies) are the collective scientific national academy of the United States. The name is used interchangeably in two senses: (1) as an umbrell ...

, as well as the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

. Malenka's laboratory research with the National Alzheimer's Foundation has informed researchers aiming to find a neuronal basis for

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

. Malenka's main career is focused on studying the mechanisms of

synaptic plasticity In neuroscience, synaptic plasticity is the ability of synapses to strengthen or weaken over time, in response to increases or decreases in their activity. Since memories are postulated to be represented by vastly interconnected neural circuit ...

and the effects of neural circuits on learning and memory.

Early years and education

Robert Malenka grew up playing sports in the town of

Belmont, Massachusetts Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. It is a western suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, United States; and is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, the town's population stood at 27,295 ...

. Malenka is still an avid tennis player and athletic spectator. He grew up with his brother, David Malenka, who is currently practicing

cardiology Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart d ...

at the

Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center Dartmouth may refer to: Places * Dartmouth, Devon, England ** Dartmouth Harbour * Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States * Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada * Dartmouth, Victoria, Australia Institutions * Dartmouth College, Ivy League university in ...

Hanover, New Hampshire Hanover is a town located along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 11,870. The town is home to the Ivy League university Dartmouth College, the U.S. Army Corps of Eng ...

. Malenka always had an interest in science, and while choosing a career path also considered being a

neurosurgeon Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peri ...

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

, and

clinical psychologist Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...

. For Malenka's undergraduate education, he attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and graduated in 1978. After his graduation, Malenka received his MD and PhD from

in 1983. While receiving these titles, he also completed his psychiatric residency at Stanford and a postdoctoral fellowship at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

Career

Malenka has spent the last ten years in his lab identifying the mechanically distinct forms of

present in the human brain. His main goal was to distinctly separate the steps which lead to the varying forms of synaptic plasticity, while also identifying the proteins which contribute to the altering of synaptic efficacy over time. As a side project in his laboratory, Malenka studies the effects that drugs like

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

and amphetamine have on synaptic plasticity. In recent years, he has isolated a novel form of

in the

nucleus accumbens The nucleus accumbens (NAc or NAcc; also known as the accumbens nucleus, or formerly as the ''nucleus accumbens septi'', Latin for "nucleus adjacent to the septum") is a region in the basal forebrain rostral to the preoptic area of the hypotha ...

, the part of the brain associated with reward pathways.

Professional organizations

Spanning from 1999 to 2008, Malenka served on the

Society for Neuroscience The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is a professional society, headquartered in Washington, DC, for basic scientists and physicians around the world whose research is focused on the study of the brain and nervous system. It is especially well kn ...

's Programming Committee, the Renovis Incorporated Advisory Board, and the Merck Incorporated Advisory Board. He is currently on the Scientific Council for the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and is on the board of directors for the Brain Research Foundation. Malenka is also the co-founder of Circuit Therapeutics, Inc, a company which he began working with in 2012. Circuit Therapeutics uses

optogenetic Optogenetics is a biological technique to control the activity of neurons or other cell types with light. This is achieved by expression of light-sensitive ion channels, pumps or enzymes specifically in the target cells. On the level of individ ...

technology to target specific neurons in patients who suffer from chronic diseases and have damaged neuronal function.

Publications

Malenka's work has been published in 274 papers. One of his first major publications was in ''Neuron Magazine'''s inaugural issue, a paper in which he proposed that

long-term potentiation In neuroscience, long-term potentiation (LTP) is a persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity. These are patterns of synaptic activity that produce a long-lasting increase in signal transmission between two neurons ...

at neuronal synapses must involve some postsynaptic modifications.

Awards and honors

Robert Malenka's first major career award was the Young Investigator Award, given to him by the

in 1993. After graduation from

Stanford Medical School Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Francisco in 1858. This ...

, Malenka earned the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1998. In that same year, Malenka earned the Daniel Efron Award, given to him by the

American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Founded in 1961, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) is a professional organization of leading brain and behavior scientists. The principal functions of the college are research and education. Their goals in research are to offe ...

. Malenka's first international award came in 2000, when he received the International Prize in Neuroscience from the Milena Kemali Foundation. Malenka is a two-time recipient of the

Julius Axelrod Julius Axelrod (May 30, 1912 – December 29, 2004) was an American biochemist. He won a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1970 along with Bernard Katz and Ulf von Euler. The Nobel Committee honored him for his work on the re ...

Prize, one given as a mentorship award from the

(2011), and the other given to him by the Society for Neuroscience in 2016.

Talks and interviews

CSHL Leading Strand, June 2018 World Economic Forum, February 2016 USRP, July 2015

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Malenka, Robert Living people Stanford University School of Medicine faculty University of California, San Francisco alumni University of California, San Francisco faculty 1955 births Stanford University School of Medicine alumni Harvard University alumni Members of the National Academy of Medicine