Dr. Harris receives NIH Javits Neuroscience Investig...( Dr. Kristen M. Harris chief of the Syn...)

Dr. Kristen M. Harris, chief of the Synapses and Cell Signaling Program at the Medical College of Georgia, has received the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke's Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award for her studies of anatomical changes that occur at synapses, the sites of communication between brain cells.

Congress established the Senator Jacob Javits Award in the Neurosciences in 1983 to honor the late New York senator with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis who was an advocate for research of the brain and nervous system. Nearly 480 awards have been made to date.

The award recognizes investigators who have made substantial contributions to the neurological science field and likely will continue being highly productive for the seven-year term of award funding.

Dr. Harris, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Synapses and Cell Signaling, was nominated for the award by Dr. Yuan Liu, program director in Channels, Synapses and Circuits; Technology Development at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health. She was selected by the National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council.

A total dollar amount has not yet been determined for the funding, which will support studies to document in living animals the changes in synapses that likely enable learning and memory. However, Dr. Harris requested nearly $1.4 million over the original five-year period.

"This is a terrific honor for Dr. Harris and for the university," said Dr. David M. Stern, dean of the MCG School of Medicine. "In her near 30-year career, Dr. Harris and her team have made fundamental discoveries about anatomic changes in synapses that likely will not only help us better understand how we learn and remember but also pave the way for better treatments of diseases that disrupt these processes. Her latest grant helps take critical forward steps, from studying slices o
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Contact: Toni Baker
tbaker@mcg.edu
706-721-4421
Medical College of Georgia
19-Oct-2004

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