For her work on strategies that enable precise, minimally invasive alteration of nerves, Viviana Gradinaru is the 2020 grand prize winner of the Science & PINS Prize for Neuromodulation. Her work opens up the potential for noninvasively reaching targets deep in the brain, to treat brain disorders. Its application in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease shows it could be a way to treat brain disorders by targeting the nervous system outside the brain and spinal column, sometimes called the peripheral nervous system.
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Viviana Gradinaru
Viviana Gradinaru receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for developing next-generation tools in optogenetics, tissue clearing, and gene delivery, with potential therapeutic applications in human diseases.
Jeanne T. Paz
Jeanne T. Paz receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for uncovering the neural basis of epileptic seizures, and for demonstrating possible methods of predicting and arresting seizures.
Huda Zoghbi
Huda Zoghbi receives the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science for pioneering work that led to a molecular understanding of Rett syndrome, a rare but devastating inherited neurological condition, and related disorders, revealing insights into brain development and neurodegeneration.
