Katrin Franke Receives Nemko Prize in Cellular or Molecular Neuroscience
The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) will award the Nemko Prize in Cellular or Molecular Neuroscience to Katrin Franke, PhD, junior research group leader at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) and the Institute for Ophthalmic Research, both at Tübingen University, in Germany.
The Nemko Prize recognizes a young neuroscientist for his or her PhD thesis that advances understanding of molecular, genetic, or cellular mechanisms underlying brain function, including higher function and cognition. Supported by The Nemko Family, the prize includes $2,500 plus complimentary registration and travel to SfN's annual meeting, the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.
"SfN congratulates Dr. Franke on both her PhD thesis and earning the Nemko Prize. Her project in vision research demonstrates the meticulousness in her work and holds promise for increasing our basic understanding of visual processing," SfN President Eric Nestler said.
Franke completed her thesis, "Functional characterization of the excitatory pathways in the mouse inner retina," at the Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN), at the University of Tübingen, and the Institute for Ophthalmic Research. With her thesis, she sought to obtain a complete sample of information sent from the eyes to the brain and to further understanding of how the retinal network disassembles complex visual input.
Previous research had mainly focused on individual retinal output neurons, but in Franke´s approach to this study, she aimed to record complete populations of neurons to capture the full functional diversity represented by parallel retinal output channels. The results of Franke's research serve to increase the understanding of how the mammalian retina processes visual information, creating multiple parallel pathways in doing so, and provides insight into mechanisms of sensory processing.
About the Society for Neuroscience
SfN advances the understanding of the brain and the nervous system by bringing together scientists of diverse backgrounds, facilitating the integration of research directed at all levels of biological organization, and encouraging translational research and the application of new scientific knowledge to develop improved disease treatments and cures.
The Society for Neuroscience is the world’s largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 38,000 members in more than 90 countries and over 130 chapters worldwide.
