Academy Fellow, Christine Holt FMedSci, Professor Emerita of Developmental Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, has been awarded The Brain Prize for 2023.
Professor Holt shares the prize with Professor Michael Greenberg of Harvard Medical School, USA and Professor Erin Schuman of the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Germany.
The Brain Prize, awarded by the Lundbeck Foundation in Denmark, is worth one million Pounds. Awarded annually, it recognises one or more scientists who have distinguished themselves by an outstanding contribution to neuroscience.
The three scientists were recognised for their pioneering research into the molecular mechanisms that regulate the neuronal proteome during development, plasticity and disease.
Professor Christine Holt FMedSci, said:
“Thank you for selecting me as one of the recipients of The Brain Prize this year. It is an honour beyond my wildest dreams, and I am absolutely delighted. The Prize is an incredible recognition of the work that we have been doing over the last forty years.
“It is such a great honour to share the prize with Erin Schuman and Mike Greenberg. Their beautiful work has been an inspiration to me over the years. Erin and I have both explored the role of local protein synthesis in nerve processes, but from different sides of the synapse. It’s been an exciting journey of discovery that may eventually lead to advances in therapies for neurodegenerative disease and neural repair. Thank you most sincerely to the Lundbeck Foundation.”
Professor Holt was elected Fellow of the Academy in 2007 and is internationally distinguished for her research into how nerve connections are formed and maintained in the brain. She pioneered the imaging of growing axons in vivo, and has developed further methods to identify, at a molecular level, how retinal axons decide whether or not to cross from one side of the brain to the other. Fundamental knowledge of this sort is essential for understanding neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders and for developing clinical therapies in nerve repair.
For more information, please visit the Brain Prize website.