Skip to main content
Close
Vilcek Foundation
  • About
    • About

      The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation of the arts and sciences.

    • Our Mission
    • Board & Staff
    • Press Center
    • Contact
  • Prizes
    • Prizes

      The Vilcek Foundation Prizes are awarded to foreign-born individuals for extraordinary achievement in the arts and sciences.

    • About the Prizes

      Learn more about the Vilcek Foundation Prizes and the prizewinners.

    • Vilcek Prizes

      Awarded to immigrants with a legacy of major accomplishments.

    • Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise

      Awarded to young immigrant professionals who have demonstrated outstanding achievement early in their careers.

    • Vilcek Prize for Excellence

      Awarded to immigrants who have had a significant impact on American society, or to individuals who are dedicated champions of immigrant causes.

    • Prize Recipients
    • Grants for Organizations
  • Art
  • Events
  • News
Sign Up Search
Home > Prizes > Prize Recipients > Sergiu P. Pasca

Sergiu P. Pasca

2018 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Location

Stanford, CA

Title

Assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Stanford University

Area(s) of Research

Stem cell research; neuroscience; psychiatry; behavioral sciences

Education

Stanford University School of Medicine (postdoc, neuroscience);
Hatieganu School of Medicine, Romania (MD)

Country of Birth

Romania

Follow Sergiu P. Pasca
Twitter Facebook
Links to learn more about Sergiu P. Pasca's work
  • pascalab.org

Tags
autism behavioral sciences biomedical science neuroscience psychiatry romania Stanford University stem cell research
Share this page
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

Growing up in Aiud, Romania, in a family of modest means, Pasca always gravitated toward chemistry. He won a prize in the national chemistry Olympiad during his last year of high school, earning him a scholarship toward any Romanian university.

He enrolled in medical school in Cluj-Napoca, and — despite limited resources in the biochemistry program — his research there uncovered links between autistic children and certain metabolic alterations, helping shed light on the biochemical underpinnings of the condition.

Sergiu Pasca inside a darkroom ab at Stanford University

Pasca then secured a postdoctoral position in neuroscience at Stanford. There, he explored the molecular underpinnings of Timothy syndrome, a rare form of autism that can be accompanied by heart defects, low blood sugar, and intellectual disability — and helped shed light on abnormalities of Timothy syndrome patients on the cellular level. He earned a faculty position at Stanford, where he worked on developing models for brain disease, using stem cells to generate self-organizing 3D structures dubbed “organoids” that resemble human brain tissue.

“There are many aspects of brain function that 2D cultures do not capture, and I felt early on that these 3D cultures would prove transformative,” says Pasca. The effort led to a repository of patient-derived brain cultures that are among the most realistic mockups of brain development available to researchers today.

Sergiu Pasca holding a vial of 3D structures dubbed “organoids” that resemble human brain tissue.

Later, Pasca created an even more sophisticated model of the human brain: one that allows more precise investigation into cross-talk between brain regions. These findings have led to greater insight into human brain development and disorders in which communication between different brain regions goes awry — like uncovering defects in the migration of so-called interneurons in Timothy syndrome patients’ brains.

“With these models, we can finally get access to what we thought was inaccessible brain biology,” Pasca says.

 

Awards and Accomplishments

  • Visionaries in Science and Medicine, New York Times (2018)
  • NYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Investigator, New York Stem Cell Foundation (2017)
  • Jordi Folch-Pi Award for Neurochemistry, American Society for Neurochemistry (2017)
  • NARSAD Independent Investigator Award, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (2017)
  • NIMH Director’s BRAINS Award, National Institute of Mental Health (2015–2020)
  • Baxter Faculty Scholar Award, Baxter Foundation (2015)
  • MQ Fellow Award for Transforming Mental Health, MQ Foundation, London (2014–2017)
  • Alumni Excellence Research Award, Medicalis (2013)
  • Grand Prize Best Romanian Student Abroad, LRSA (2013)
  • NARSAD Young Investigator Award, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (2013)
  • Best Postdoctoral Research Award, Stanford University (2012)
  • Sammy Kuo Award, Best Postdoctoral Publication in Neuroscience at Stanford University (2012)
  • Tashia & John Morgridge Endowed Fellow, Child Health Research Institute (CHRI) (2010–2012)
  • IBRO Outstanding Research Fellow, International Research Organization (IBRO) (2009–2010)
  • Medical Student of the Year, VIP Foundation (2006)

Follow Sergiu P. Pasca

Twitter Facebook
Tags
autism behavioral sciences biomedical science neuroscience psychiatry romania Stanford University stem cell research

Jury Members

2018 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Iannis Aifantis

Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology, New York University School of Medicine

Heran Darwin

Professor of Microbiology, New York University School of Medicine

Laurie Dempsey

Senior Editor, Nature Immunology, Nature Publishing Group

Yibin Kang

Warner-Lambert Parke-Davis Professor of Molecular Biology, Princeton University

Peter Palese

Horace W. Goldsmith Professor and Chair of Microbiology, Professor of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Leslie Vosshall

Robin Chemers Neustein Professor, The Rockefeller University

Jedd Wolchok

Lloyd J. Old Chair for Clinical Investigation, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Share this page
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

Related Prize Recipients

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.
Portrait of Viviana Gradinaru

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.
Portrait of Jeanne Paz

Michael Halassa

Michael Halassa receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for identifying circuits in the thalamus that act as tunable filters, enabling the brain to suppress sensory noise during selective attention, as well as identifying a form of autism in which this filtering process is deficient.
Portrait of Michael Halassa

You may also be interested in

October 18, 2022

Vilcek Foundation honors immigrant scientists with $250,000 in prizes

Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Edward Chouchani, Biyu J. He, and Shixin Liu receive the 2023 Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Biomedical Science.
The 2023 Vilcek Prizewinners in biomedical science from left to right: Edward Chouchani, Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Biyu J. He, & Shixin Liu.
February 22, 2019

From Survivor to Healer: Jeanne T. Paz Fights for a Cure

Creative Promise Prizewinner Jeanne T. Paz first heard her calling to heal as a child in her native Georgia.
Jeanne T. Paz with a student in her lab
October 18, 2022

Announcing the 2023 Vilcek Foundation Prizewinners

Immigrant scientists and musicians in the United States to receive $600,000 in unrestricted cash awards.
A collage with splices of the 2023 Vilcek Prizewinners' faces.

Join our mailing list

Sign Up
Vilcek Foundation
21 East 70th Street
New York, New York 10021

Phone: 212.472.2500

Email: info@vilcek.org

  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Board and Staff
    • Press Center
    • Contact
  • Prizes
    • Vilcek Prizes
    • Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise
    • Vilcek Prize for Excellence
    • Prize Recipients
    • Grants for Organizations
  • Art
  • Events
  • News
  • Careers
Connect with us
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Youtube
  • Vimeo
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility Statement
© 2023   Vilcek Foundation