Thomas C. Südhof, Winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and current member of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University, he gave the inaugural lecture on the molecular mechanisms of synapse organisation. During the event, IBIS presented him with the IBIS Distinguished investigator award for his "exceptional contributions to the advancement of Biomedicine", as explained by the director of the meeting, Rafael Fernández-Chacón.
Thomas Christian Südhof obtained his M.D. and doctoral degree in biophysics from the University of Göttingen and trained as a postdoctoral fellow with Drs. Mike Brown and Joe Goldstein at UT Southwestern in Dallas, TX. After postdoctoral training, Südhof stayed as a faculty at UT Southwestern in Dallas, where he was the founding chair of the Department of Neuroscience. In 2008, Südhof became the Avram Goldstein Professor in the School of Medicine at Stanford University. Südhof’s research originally focused on how an action potential in a presynaptic neuron triggers the secretion of neurotransmitters, which initiates synaptic transmission.
This work revealed a general mechanism of regulated secretion, for which Südhof was awarded a share of the Nobel Prize in 2013. More recently, Südhof’s studies have centered on how synapses in brain are formed and how their properties are shaped, resulting in the identification of trans-neuronal signaling mechanisms that control synaptic connections in brain. Moreover, Südhof’s work has addressed how these synaptic connections become impaired in disorders such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease, with the hope of gaining insight into possible new therapeutic avenues.
