The International Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO) awards the 2026 HFSP Nakasone Award to Prof. Erin Schuman for her breakthrough related to the function and plasticity of neuronal synapses, their mRNA triggered function, and change during memory formation. The award is endowed with 15 000 US dollars.
Schuman’s groundbreaking research revealed that proteins critical for neuron communication, plasticity and memory storage, are produced locally at synapses, the junctions between neurons. This insight overturns the previous belief that all proteins are made in the cell body and then shipped out to synapses where they function.
Erin Schuman is the managing director at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, co-opted Professor of Biology at Goethe University and member of the Internal Board of Goethe University’s new excellence cluster SCALE. Further, she is professor of Synaptic Function and Plasticity at the Donders Center for Neuroscience and the Faculty of Science of Radboud University in the Netherlands.
Source and further information:
Press release by Max Planck Institute for Brain Research
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