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Home > Prizes > Prize Recipients > Viviana Gradinaru

Viviana Gradinaru

2020 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Location

Pasadena, CA

Title

Professor of neuroscience and biological engineering; Investigator, Heritage Medical Research Institute; Director, Center for Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, California Institute of Technology

Area(s) of Research

Optogenetics, physiology, imaging, and behavior; therapies for neurological diseases

Education

California Institute of Technology (BS);
Stanford University (PhD)

Country of Birth

Romania

Links to learn more about Viviana Gradinaru's work
  • caltech.edu

Tags
biomedical science Caltech Heritage Medical Research Institute imaging neurology neuroscience optogenetics physiology romania systems biology women in science women in stem
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Viviana Gradinaru at California Institute of Technology

Viviana Gradinaru’s talent for straddling disciplines has earned her a spot among today’s preeminent young scientists. A professor of neuroscience and biological engineering at California Institute of Technology, she has developed ways to precisely control the activity of brain cells in living animals, explored the neuronal basis of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease, uncovered neural circuitry underlying sleep disturbances, and fashioned advanced vectors for gene therapy that could someday help treat human diseases.

Born to factory workers in Vaslui in northeastern Romania and raised in a farming community under a communist regime, Gradinaru developed an interest in engineering early on. She fastened on physics in high school and, thanks to a coveted fellowship, pursued undergraduate physics at the University of Bucharest. She then applied to move to the United States and was accepted to study physics at Caltech.

In 2005, Gradinaru began a doctorate at Stanford University with neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth and developed tools to probe the mechanism by which deep brain stimulation (DBS), a life-altering medical procedure for patients with Parkinson’s disease, confers therapeutic benefits. When she graduated with a PhD in 2010, she accepted an assistant professorship at Caltech, after a brief stint in the biotech startup world.

At Caltech, Gradinaru developed PARS-CLARITY, a crucial method that is today used by researchers worldwide in combination with microscopy and molecular imaging methods. “These tissue-clearing methods helped us visualize, among other things, long-range neuronal projections and pathways, which is a prerequisite for identifying and restoring lost or damaged connectivity in disease,” Gradinaru explains. “CLARITY has also expanded to other applications, such as monitoring microbial infections in animal models of diseases such as cystic fibrosis.”

Viviana Gradinaru in front of Caltech's iconic Gene Pool

Gradinaru says her future goal is to make noninvasive deep brain modulation for treating human neurodegenerative disorders a reality. The impressive pace and growing roster of her accomplishments suggest that the goal is within her grasp.

 

Awards and Accomplishments

  • Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists – Life Sciences Finalist (2019)
  • NIH Pioneer Award; Gill Center Transformative Award (2018)
  • Vallee Scholar; Moore Inventor Fellow (2017)
  • Early-Career Scientist Winner in the Innovators in Science Award in Neuroscience (2017)
  • Eppendorf and Science Prize Finalist – essay published in Science (2017)
  • PECASE: Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (2016)
  • Inaugural Peter Gruss Young Investigator Award (2016)
  • Sloan Research Fellow; Heritage Principal Investigator (2015)
  • Cell “40 Under 40” (2014)
  • Pew Scholar Award (2013–2017)
  • NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2013–2018)
  • World Economic Forum Young Scientist (2013)
  • TEDxCaltech: The Brain on “Brain Control with Light – Development and Application” (2013)
  • Kimmel Scholar Award for Cancer Research (2013–2015)
  • Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Young Investigator Grant (2013–2016)
Tags
biomedical science Caltech Heritage Medical Research Institute imaging neurology neuroscience optogenetics physiology romania systems biology women in science women in stem

Jury Members

2020 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

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

Harmit S. Malik

Principal Investigator, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Luciano Marraffini

Professor of Bacteriology, The Rockefeller University

Leslie Vosshall

Robin Chemers Neustein Professor of Neurogenetics and Behavior, The Rockefeller University

Jedd Wolchok

Lloyd J. Old/Virginia and Daniel K. Ludwig Chair in Clinical Investigation, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
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Related Prize Recipients

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.
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Polina Anikeeva

Polina Anikeeva receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for developing novel engineering solutions that have advanced the field of neural engineering and enabled fine-grained analysis of brain function and animal behavior.
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Sergiu P. Pasca

Sergiu P. Pasca receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for developing realistic models of the human brain and unearthing fundamental insights into the biology of neuropsychiatric diseases like autism.
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You may also be interested in

August 6, 2020

New research offers minimally invasive approach to deep brain stimulation

Creative Promise Prizewinner Viviana Gradinaru receives the Science & PINS Prize for Neuromodulation, for her innovative Parkinson’s Research
Viviana Gradinaru and lab members conduct an experiment in her lab.
March 30, 2020

Viviana Gradinaru: “Make Yourself Useful.”

Viviana Gradinaru credits her upbringing in Communist Romania with fostering ingenuity in problem-solving, and a passion for exploring hard science.
Viviana Gradinaru is the Professor of Neuroscience and Biological Engineering at Caltech.
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.

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