Biography of a Nobel Laureate

Paul Greengard, Ph.D., Director of the Michael Stern Parkinson’s Research Foundation, is the Vincent Astor Professor and head of The Rockefeller University’s Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience. He is also a Vice President with the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation. An internationally acclaimed neuroscientist, Dr. Greengard’s discoveries have provided a conceptual framework for understanding how the nervous system functions at the molecular level – work that earned him the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the highest honor paid to medical researchers.Dr. Greengard is a member of The National Academy of Science and has received more than fifty major awards and honors for his groundbreaking research, including the Society for Neuroscience’s Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience; the National Academy of Sciences Award in Neuroscience; the 1997 Dana Award for Pioneering Achievement in Health; the 1996 Lieber Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Schizophrenia Research, and numerous named lectures and visiting professorships. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and carried out postdoctoral studies at the University of London, Cambridge University and the National Institute for Medical Research in London. He was the Henry Bronson Professor of Pharmacology and Psychiatry at Yale University prior to joining The Rockefeller University in 1983 to assume his present position. Dr. Greengard was named the Founding Director of the Zachary and Elizabeth M. Fisher Center for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease in 1994.

Angus C. Nairn, Ph.D.Dr. Angus C. Nairn is Adjunct Professor in the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience at The Rockefeller University and Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University’s Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Nairn received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Birmingham, England, and did postdoctoral studies in Pharmacology at Yale University School of Medicine. He has been at The Rockefeller University since 1983, first as an assistant professor, and since 1989 as an adjunct professor. Dr. Nairn serves on the editorial boards of several publications, including Advances in Second Messenger and Phosphoprotein Research, Journal of Biological Chemistry and Journal of General Physiology.His current studies focus on dopamine signaling pathways and the regulation of protein phosphatases. For example, recent studies have established that phosphorylation of DARPP-32 and the inhibition of protein phosphatase-1 (PP1) are essential components in mediating the actions of dopamine in the basal ganglia. The discovery and characterization of proteins in the basal ganglia, particularly DARPP-32, provides a rational new approach to developing drugs that specifically affect these proteins or their targets. Dr. Nairn’s future studies are continuing to focus on the biochemical characterization of DARPP-32 and PP1 pathways and regulators and the biochemical mechanism(s) involved in the phosphorylation of DARPP-32 by cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5).

Per Svenningsson, Ph.D.

Dr. Svenningsson is a professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden and a Research Assistant Professor in the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience at The Rockefeller University. Dr. Svenningsson received his Ph.D. in 1998 and his M.D. in 1996 both from the Karolinska Institute.