The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience has selected four projects to receive the 2026 Neurobiology of Brain Disorders Awards. The awards will total $1.2 million for research on the biology of brain diseases, with each project receiving $100,000 per year in each of the next three years for a total of $300,000 funded per project.
تدعم جوائز البيولوجيا العصبية لاضطرابات الدماغ (NBD) الأبحاث المبتكرة التي أجراها علماء أمريكيون يدرسون الأمراض العصبية والنفسية. تشجع الجوائز التعاون بين علم الأعصاب الأساسي والسريري لترجمة الاكتشافات المختبرية حول الدماغ والجهاز العصبي إلى تشخيصات وعلاجات لتحسين صحة الإنسان.
مجال إضافي للاهتمام هو مساهمة البيئة في اضطرابات الدماغ. يعد الإجهاد البيئي في الحياة المبكرة عاملاً قوياً في التخلص من الاضطرابات العصبية والنفسية اللاحقة. تشير الدراسات إلى أن المجتمعات الملونة معرضة بشكل أكبر لهذه الضغوطات، والتي تتراوح بين البيئية (مثل المناخ والتغذية والتعرض للمواد الكيميائية والتلوث) إلى الاجتماعية (مثل الأسرة والتعليم والإسكان والفقر). من منظور سريري، يعد فهم كيفية مساهمة العوامل البيئية في الإصابة بأمراض الدماغ أمرًا ضروريًا لتطوير علاجات فعالة.
“From uncovering how physiological temperature reshapes pain signaling, to mapping circuits that connect early life adversity to fear, to restoring motor plasticity in the aging brain, the researchers selected for this year’s award are pushing the frontiers of neuroscience in bold and much needed directions,” said Michael Ehlers, M.D., Ph.D., Chair of the Awards Committee. This year’s projects include investigations into temperature as a missing variable in pain biology and drug discovery, the development of septal dopamine circuits controlling fear in the context of early life stress, the rescue of cortical plasticity and motor learning in aging, and an environmentally focused project examining how early life high fructose exposure impairs microglial function and disrupts neurodevelopment. These efforts promise to reshape our understanding of brain disease and point to transformative therapeutic possibilities for the future.”
الجوائز مستوحاة من اهتمامات William L. McKnight، الذي أسس مؤسسة McKnight في عام 1953 وأراد دعم الأبحاث حول أمراض الدماغ. أنشأت ابنته، فيرجينيا ماكنايت بينغر، ومجلس إدارة مؤسسة ماكنايت برنامج ماكنايت لعلم الأعصاب تكريمًا له في عام 1977.
يتم منح جوائز متعددة كل عام. الجوائز الأربع لهذا العام هي:
خوان دو ، دكتوراه
Professor, Northwestern University
Temperature as a Missing Dimension in Pain Neurobiology and Therapy
Corey Harwell, Ph.D.
Professor, University of California, San Francisco
How Early Life Stress Shapes the Development of Septal Dopamine Circuits Controlling Fear
Takaki Komiyama, Ph.D.
University of California, San Diego
Rescuing Motor Learning Failure in Aging
Justin Perry, Ph.D.
Associate Member, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Understanding how early life high fructose exposure suppresses microglia efferocytosis and disrupts neurodevelopment
With 177 applications received this year, the awards are highly competitive. A committee of distinguished scientists reviews the letters and invites a select few researchers to submit full proposals. In addition to Dr. Ehlers, the committee includes Nancy Bonini, Ph.D, University of Pennsylvania; Nicole Calakos, M.D., Ph.D., Duke University; Gloria Choi, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Joseph G. Gleeson, M.D., University of California San Diego; Evan Macosko, M.D., Ph.D., Broad Institute of معهد ماساتشوستس للتكنولوجيا and Harvard University; and Michael Sofroniew, Ph.D., M.D., University of California, Los Angeles.
Applications for both the 2027 Neurobiology of Brain Disorders Awards and Scholar Awards open August 3, 2026, and will be accepted through October 15 and November 3, 2026, respectively.
حول صندوق McKnight Endowment للعلوم العصبية
صندوق ماكنايت لعلم الأعصاب هو منظمة مستقلة تُموّل حصريًا من قِبل مؤسسة ماكنايت في مينيابوليس، مينيسوتا، ويديره مجلس إدارة يضم علماء أعصاب بارزين من جميع أنحاء البلاد. تدعم مؤسسة ماكنايت أبحاث علم الأعصاب منذ عام ١٩٧٧. أنشأت المؤسسة صندوق الوقف عام ١٩٨٦ لتنفيذ إحدى نوايا مؤسسها ويليام ل. ماكنايت (١٨٨٧-١٩٧٨)، أحد القادة الأوائل لشركة 3M.
بالإضافة إلى جوائز البيولوجيا العصبية لاضطرابات الدماغ، يوفر صندوق الوقف أيضًا تمويلًا سنويًا للجوائز من خلال جوائز McKnight Scholar، لدعم علماء الأعصاب في المراحل الأولى من حياتهم المهنية البحثية.
جوائز البيولوجيا العصبية من اضطرابات الدماغ
خوان دو ، دكتوراه, Professor, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Temperature as a Missing Dimension in Pain Neurobiology and Therapy
Temperature is one of the most fundamental signals sensed by the nervous system, shaping experiences from the warmth of sunlight to the pain of touching a hot surface. The Du laboratory studies how the body detects temperature and how disruptions in these pathways contribute to neurological disorders.
Recent discoveries from the Du laboratory suggest that temperature is a previously overlooked “missing dimension” in biomedical research and drug discovery. Most biological experiments and drug screenings are performed at room temperature, even though proteins function in the body at 37°C. The lab discovered that important protein states and drug interactions can remain hidden under conventional laboratory conditions and only emerge at body temperature. These findings may help explain why some drug candidates succeed in early studies but fail later in development. Through this project, the team aims to uncover how temperature-driven protein dynamics contribute to chronic pain and to develop “temperature-aware” therapies with greater precision and fewer side effects.
Corey Harwell, Ph.D., Professor, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
How Early Life Stress Shapes the Development of Septal Dopamine Circuits Controlling Fear
Anxiety disorders affect millions of people worldwide, and early life stress is one of the strongest risk factors for developing anxiety and trauma-related disorders later in life. Despite this clear link, the mechanisms by which stressful experiences during childhood alter the developing brain remain poorly understood. Emerging evidence suggests that disruptions in dopamine circuits involved in fear, safety learning, and emotional regulation may contribute to long-lasting changes in behavior.
The Harwell lab aims to determine how early life stress alters the development of a specific dopamine circuit connecting the ventral tegmental area and lateral septum, two brain regions involved in regulating fear and anxiety-related behaviors. Using advanced genetic, imaging, and behavioral approaches in mice, the lab will define how stress changes the maturation and activity of this circuit and whether these alterations impair the ability to recognize when danger has passed. Overall, this work could identify new therapeutic targets and developmental windows for treating anxiety and trauma-related disorders.
Takaki Komiyama, Ph.D., Professor, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA
Rescuing Motor Learning Failure in Aging
The brain continuously reshapes itself through experience, allowing people to learn new skills, adapt to changing environments, and recover from challenges. Yet this remarkable flexibility is not unlimited. As we age and in many neurological conditions, the brain circuits become less able to reorganize itself in an adaptive manner, making learning and recovery increasingly difficult. Takaki Komiyama’s research seeks to uncover the fundamental rules that allow the brain to remain adaptable throughout life and to understand why those mechanisms sometimes fail.
His laboratory combines innovative approaches that allow researchers to observe and precisely influence the activity of individual neurons in the brains of behaving animals. By studying how experiences alter neural circuits, his team aims not only to reveal how learning naturally occurs, but also to determine whether the brain’s ability to change can be restored or enhanced when it becomes impaired. This work seeks to bridge fundamental discoveries about how the brain learns with future strategies to improve learning, recovery, and brain health across the lifespan.
Justin Perry, Ph.D., Associate Member, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
Understanding How Early Life High Fructose Exposure Suppresses Microglia Efferocytosis and Disrupts Neurodevelopment
Despite its success as a low-cost food additive, there has been significant attention on the potential downsides to the dramatic increase in use of high fructose corn syrup across the world, especially in foods marketed to children. Emerging evidence suggests that high fructose consumption by pregnant mothers (via breast milk) or by adolescent children is associated with the development of mood, anxiety, and autism spectrum disorders during adolescence. Despite this emerging link and the growing prevalence of such disorders, very little is known about how high fructose exposure affects neurodevelopment.
During development, the human brain not only massively expands the number of new neurons formed but must also remove neurons that are deemed surplus. This process is achieved by specialized cells, called microglia, who must manage this burdensome but essential process in the harsh environment of the developing brain. Dr. Perry aims to apply cutting-edge approaches from multiple fields to uncover the metabolic pathways that support phagocytosis by microglia and to understand why these pathways go awry when the brain is exposed to high fructose.
