News Release

Karl Deisseroth receives Inaugural SOBP Distinguished Redelsheimer Award

Grant and Award Announcement

Parthenon Management Group

The Society of Biological Psychiatry (SOBP) is pleased to announce Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, of Stanford University as the inaugural recipient of the Distinguished Redelsheimer Award. The award was established to recognize a major breakthrough in the science of biological psychiatry. Dr. Kerry Ressler, SOBP President, will present the award to Dr. Deisseroth on May 18, 2017 at the 72nd Annual Meeting of SOBP in San Diego, California.

Dr. Deisseroth, D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, received the award for his transformative breakthroughs as a psychiatrist physician-scientist with the advancement of optogenetics, CLARITY, and other novel and powerful neural circuit approaches in furthering the field's understanding of the neuroscience underlying behavior.

"I am delighted that SOBP can honor someone who has done so much transformative work in our field for the inaugural award," said Dr. Ressler.

The seminal work of Dr. Deisseroth has pushed the boundaries of brain manipulation and visualization. Through the use of light, his laboratory developed advanced high-resolution optogenetics tools for controlling specific elements of neural activity. His laboratory also revolutionized brain mapping with CLARITY, a technique allowing transparent imaging of the brain that provides an unprecedented view of the brain's complex structure in its fully intact 3-dimensional form. Integrating these tools with other neuroscience approaches in freely moving animals has led to significant scientific advancements in understanding how brain circuitry contributes to behavior, both in its natural state and related to neuropsychiatric disease. Dr. Deisseroth warrants further recognition for his contributions to the field by generously making optogenetics and CLARITY resources widely available to other researchers.

Dr. Deisseroth is also an attending physician in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, where he works with patients with treatment-resistant depression and autism spectrum disorders, and he is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Since the beginning of his career in neuroscience, Dr. Deisseroth has been widely recognized and received numerous awards for his substantial contributions to the field.

This award was made possible by a generous gift from the Redelsheimer family. An Honorific Committee composed of the current and past five Society presidents selected Dr. Deisseroth as the first recipient of the new award. The prestigious award comes with a $50,000 cash prize.

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About the Society of Biological Psychiatry:

The Society of Biological Psychiatry was founded in l945 to encourage the study of the biological causes of and treatments for psychiatric disorders. Its continuing purpose is to promote excellence in scientific research and education in fields that investigate the nature, causes, mechanisms, and treatments of disorders of thought, emotion, or behavior.

To achieve its purpose, the Society creates venues for the exchange of scientific information that will foster the advancement of psychiatric neuroscience and therapeutics. To this end, the Society sponsors an annual meeting, maintains web-based resources, grants awards to distinguished clinical and basic researchers, and publishes the journal, Biological Psychiatry. The term "biological psychiatry" emphasizes the biological nature of behavior and its disorders and implies the use of the medical model; but in so doing, it encompasses other major elements of modern psychiatric medicine, including its humanitarian mission, psychological foundation, and socio-cultural orientation.

The vision of the Society of Biological Psychiatry is to be the leading professional organization in the integration, advancement, and promulgation of science relevant to psychiatric disorders, with the ultimate goal of reducing or preventing the suffering of those with these disorders. For more information, visit http://www.sobp.org or contact us at sobp@sobp.org or 904-953-2842.


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