MCB Professor Joshua Sanes has been named as a recipient of the prestigious 2018 Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize. Past awardees include six Nobel laureates, 3 Kavli Prize winners, and MCB professor Catherine Dulac, who received the Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize in 2010. Sanes and UCLA professor Larry Zipursky, who is also a recipient of the 2018 Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize, will each receive a $20,000 cash award.
Though Sanes and Zipursky work in different animal models, they both study proteins that pattern the visual system. The prize’s selection committee, which is comprised of distinguished neuroscientists, cited Sanes’ and Zipursky’s “discovery of cell-surface proteins that control circuit assembly in the visual system.”
The prize is named for the late neuroscientist Edward Perl of University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. Perl was the first president of the Society for Neuroscience and discovered a type of neuron dedicated to sensing pain.
“It’s a real thrill to join the incredible luminaries who have been honored by the Perl-UNC Prize over the years, and a special treat to win it with my friend, colleague, and collaborator, Larry Zipursky,” Sanes said. “I view the prize as recognizing the community of basic neuroscience researchers who use a variety of model systems to learn how the brain gets made. It’s a good time to be doing this, as evidence mounts that defects in the assembly of this ridiculously complex structure may underlie most psychiatric and many neurological disorders.”
Sanes will travel to North Carolina in 2019 to attend the official ceremony and give the prize lecture.
Congratulations to Professor Sanes!
Josh Sanes faculty profile, Sanes lab website
by Diana Crow
