MetLife Foundation Award for Medical Research Recognizes Alzheimer’s
Disease
Research
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Roberto Malinow Honored
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Approximately 4.5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s
disease. That number is estimated to increase ten-fold by 2050,
according to the Alzheimer’s Association. As America’s
population ages, Alzheimer’s disease is poised to become
a major health crisis with serious implications for families,
our health care system and the economy.
 In
hopes of preventing this, MetLife Foundation has recognized Cold
Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Roberto Malinow, M.D.,
Ph.D., for his efforts and contributions to understanding
Alzheimer’s disease by advancing our knowledge of how cells
in the brain communicate and how diseases of cognition disrupt
that communication.
“The scientists we honor today are on the frontlines of battling Alzheimer’s,” said
Sibyl Jacobson, president and CEO, MetLife Foundation. “Their persistence
and imaginative research are helping to unlock the complexities of this disease,
bringing us that much closer to a prevention or cure.”
Dr. Malinow and his colleagues have focused their research on how activity in
brain cells controls the strength of communication at the synapses between the
cells. This process, called synaptic plasticity, is thought to underlie the formation
and storage of memories. Dr. Malinow’s research has led to a greater understanding
of how synapses function, as well as the role of amyloid beta peptides (viewed
as central to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease) in normal and disease
cells.
Dr. Malinow received a B.A. in mathematics from Reed College, an M.D. from the
NYU School of Medicine in 1984 and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1986. He conducted
postdoctoral research at Yale University School of Medicine under the guidance
of Dr. Richard Tsein, and joined Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1993, where
he is now the Ale Davis and Maxine Harrison Professor of Neuroscience.
MetLife Foundation also recognized Thomas Südhof, M.D., director of the
Center for Basic Neuroscience at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical
Center at Dallas and investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Since 1986, MetLife Foundation has awarded $9 million in grants through the Awards
for Medical Research program. Two of the awardees have gone on to win Nobel Prizes.
MetLife Foundation, established in 1976 by MetLife, supports health, education,
civic and cultural programs throughout the United States. For more information,
visit www.metlife.org.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a private, non-profit basic research
institution. Under the leadership of Dr. Bruce Stillman, a member
of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society
(London), 308 scientists at the Laboratory conduct groundbreaking
research in cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, and bioinformatics.
For more information, visit www.cshl.edu.
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