Hall, Rosbash and Young share $500,000 Gruber neuroscience prize

These investigators established that in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster circadian rhythms are driven by a transcriptional feedback loop that controls the expression of the period gene. They discovered a set of interacting genes that control this process, including the light-sensing protein that establishes circadian rhythms in response to the day-night light cycle.

Subsequent work by others demonstrated that these findings apply broadly to both invertebrates and vertebrates and that a mutation in the human counterpart of the period gene causes a human circadian sleep disorder. These discoveries reveal a striking solution to the problem of how genes control a higher-order behavior.

Laureates of the Gruber Neuroscience Prize:
2008: John O'Keefe, for discovering place cells, which led to important findings in cognitive neuroscience
2007: Shigetada Nakanishi, for pioneering research into communication between nerve cells in the brain
2006: Masao Ito and Roger Nicoll, for work on the molecular and cellular bases of memory and learning
2005: Masakazu Konishi and Eric Knudsen, for work on the neural basis of sound localization
2004: Seymour Benzer, for applying the tools of molecular biology and genetics to the fruit fly, Drosophila, and linking individual genes to their behavioral phenotypes

The Prize recipients are chosen by the Neuroscience Selection Advisory Board. Its members are: Carol A. Barnes, University of Arizona; Linda S. Buck, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Sten Grillner, Karolinska Institute; H. Robert Horvitz, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Masao Ito, RIKEN Brain Science Institute; Donald Price, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; and Li-Huei Tsai, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Gruber International Prize Program honors contemporary individuals in the fields of Cosmology, Genetics, Neuroscience, Justice and Women's Rights, whose groundbreaking work provides new models that inspire and enable fundamental shifts in knowledge and culture. The Selection Advisory Boards choose individuals whose contributions in their respective fields advance our knowledge, potentially have a profound impact on our lives, and, in the case of the Justice and Women's Rights Prizes, demonstrate courage and commitment in the face of significant obstacles.

The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation honors and encourages educational excellence, social justice and scientific achievements that better the human condition. For more information about Foundation guidelines and priorities, please visit www.gruberprizes.org.