Young Scientist
Paper of the Year Award

Congratulations to Sabrin Haddad, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems, on the 2024 Young Scientist Paper of the Year Award in Honor of Mark Smith for the article: A biallelic mutation in CACNA2D2 associated with developmental and epileptic encephalopathy affects calcium channel-dependent as well as synaptic functions of α2δ-2. This comprehensive and compelling paper provides a detailed functional characterization of the human biallelic p.R593P mutation in α2δ-2, examining its impact on calcium channel and synaptic function, and linking it to the severe neurodevelopmental disorder. This study holds significant translational value and underscores the importance of studying α2δ mutations in the context of channelopathies and synaptopathies.

After completing her undergraduate studies in Pharmacy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, Sabrin Haddad earned her master’s degree in Neuroscience from the University of Pisa, Italy. Her thesis focused on the peritumoral plasticity of Glioblastoma under the supervision of Dr. Eleonora Vannini and Prof. Dr. Matteo Caleo at the CNR di Pisa. She then pursued her PhD within the CavX PhD program in Innsbruck under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Gerald Obermair, initially at the Medical University of Innsbruck and later at the Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences in Krems. During her PhD, she was awarded an FTI dissertation grant by the research promotion agency of the province of Lower Austria (GFF-NÖ).

Congratulations to Dr. Deniz Karabag, University of Bonn, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), and University of Cologne, Germany, on receiving the 2023 Mark Smith Award – now named the “Young Scientist Paper of the Year in Honour of Mark Smith”, for the article “Characterizing microglial senescence: Tau as a key player”.

This original study demonstrates that exposure of cultured microglia to tau enhances senescence, as measured phenotypically and neurochemically. In essence, this shifts the highlight from brain neurons to microglia as key partners in the induction and worsening of Alzheimer’s disease characteristics. The topic is critical for understanding mechanisms of age-dependent microglial alterations, and the results hold both fundamental and translational value.

Congratulations to João Victor Cabral-Costa for the paper entitled “Mitochondrial sodium/calcium exchanger NCLX regulates glycolysis in astrocytes, impacting on cognitive performance”.  This paper presents a novel optogenetic tool that is likely to open new avenues to study the role of presynaptic potentiation in neuronal networks and their impact on behaviors, and is considered of wide interest because it provides specificity not afforded by pharmacological or electrical approaches to elicit synaptic potentiation with a high temporal and spatial precision.

The elegant and convincing study shows the involvement of mitochondrial calcium efflux by the sodium/calcium exchanger NCLX in astrocytic glucose metabolism and thus presenting a novel mechanism associating mitochondrial function with cognition. The authors prove their conclusions with a range of both pharmacological and genetic techniques, utilizing scRNA-seq data to guide the functional examination of NCLX in vivo. The targeting of NCLX deletion to either astrocytes or neurons represents an important advance, which produced intriguing differential effects on behavioral performance.

‍

Congratulations to Dr. Md. Omar Faruk on the 2021 Mark A. Smith Award for the publication “Muscarinic signaling regulates voltage‐gated potassium channel KCNQ2 phosphorylation in the nucleus accumbens via protein kinase C for aversive learning”. The authors used advanced biochemical approaches such as targeted deletion of Kcnq2 in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of emotional behavior, including avoidance learning, mediated by the NAcc via muscarinic receptor (MR1) signaling, which was known to increase with foot shock and affect the functions of KCNQ2 potassium channels.

Dr. Faruk pursued a Bachelor and Master of Science at University of Dhaka in his home country, Bangladesh, where his work was already honored with a Dean’s Award for outstanding results in BS (Bachelor of Science) and a scholarship for excellent academic performance during the Master’s thesis. Dr. Faruk earned his PhD from Nagoya University, Graduate School of Medicine, Japan in Kozo Kaibuchi’s lab with a Monbukagakusho (MEXT) award from the Japanese Government. He now holds an assistance professorship at University of Dhaka.

‍

Congratulations to Silvia Oldani who was first author of the paper entitled “SynaptoPAC, an optogenetic tool for induction of presynaptic plasticity”. This paper presents a novel optogenetic tool that is likely to open new avenues to study the role of presynaptic potentiation in neuronal networks and their impact on behaviors, and is considered of wide interest because it provides specificity not afforded by pharmacological or electrical approaches to elicit synaptic potentiation with a high temporal and spatial precision.

Silvia Oldani pursued her Master’s studies at the Università degli Studi di Milano in Milan from 2012 – 2014 where she graduated in Cell Molecular Biology with a thesis on neuronal network development at the University of Amsterdam in Netherlands under the supervision of Ruud Toonen in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Matthijs Verhage. Silvia Oldani received a NeuroCure Excellence Cluster PhD fellowship from the Charité Berlin, where she pursued her PhD from 2015 under the supervision of Benjamin Rost and Prof. Dr. Dietmar Schmitz.

2019 Wangqiu Huang, for the paper Metabolomics‐driven identification of adenosine deaminase as therapeutic target in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease

2018 Jonathan D. Lautz, for the paper Synaptic activity induces input-specific rearrangements in a targeted synaptic protein interaction network

2017 Scott Glen Canfield, for the paper An isogenic blood-brain barrier model comprising brain endothelial cells, astrocytes, and neurons derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells

2016 Sunmin Jung, for the paper Dual-specificity phosphatase 26 (DUSP26) stimulates Aβ42 generation by promoting amyloid precursor protein axonal transport during hypoxia

2015 Yuda Huo, for the paper The deubiquitinating enzyme USP46 regulates AMPA receptor ubiquitination and trafficking

2014 Stefania Averaimo, for the paper CLIC1 functional expression, is required for cAMP-induced neurite elongation in post-natal mouse retinal ganglion cells

2013 Takao Hikita, for the paper Rac1-mediated indentation of resting neurons, promotes the chain migration of new neurons in the rostral migratory stream of post-natal mouse brain

2012 Sonya B. Dumanis, for the paper APOE genotype affects the pre-synaptic compartment of glutamatergic nerve terminals

2011 Joanne L. Bailey, for the paper In vitro CNS tissue analogues formed by self-organisation of reaggregated post-natal brain tissue

2010 Jennie Cederholm, for te paper Conformational changes in extracellular loop two associated with signal transduction in the glycine receptor