Joshua Sanes receives Gruber Prize for work on neural synapses
Joshua R. Sanes, the Jeff C. Tarr Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and founding director of the Center for Brain Science, has been named the recipient of the 2017 Gruber Neuroscience Prize. The award, which includes a $500,000 prize, recognizes Sanes’ groundbreaking work to understand the mechanisms and molecules that drive the formation and specificity of neural connections, known as synapses, within the nervous system. In addition to opening avenues for studying the brain, Sanes’ work spurred the development of new ideas about how the brain processes information and the development of new tools and technologies marking and manipulating neurons and the synapses they form. Created through an agreement between Yale University and the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, the prizes are awarded to individuals in cosmology, genetics, and neuroscience whose groundbreaking work provides new models that inspire and enable fundamental shifts in knowledge and culture. Sanes will receive the award at the...