Kelsey Martin Wins Kavli Prize in Neuroscience
The Kavli Foundation announced today that Kelsey Martin, the Simons Foundation’s executive vice president of autism and neuroscience, will receive the prestigious Kavli Prize in Neuroscience. A partnership between the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Kavli Foundation, the Kavli Prizes are awarded every two years to “honor scientists for breakthroughs in astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience that transform our understanding of the big, the small and the complex.” The laureates will share $1 million and receive the prize during a September ceremony in Oslo, Norway.
Martin, along with fellow awardees Christine Holt, Erin Schuman and Oswald Steward, will be honored for their contributions to the discovery of local protein translation in neurons and establishing its importance for brain development and plasticity.
“I am honored to receive this recognition and to share it with such outstanding fellow laureates,” says Martin. “This discovery was the product of many years of hard work from dozens of people, and I am heartened that its impact continues to shape the field.”
This year’s Kavli Prize in Neuroscience celebrates research on how neurons form and modify neural connections to enable processes such as learning and memory. The laureates are honored for uncovering local protein translation, a process in which neurons produce proteins directly at synapses — the connections between neurons — rather than solely in the cell body, as previously believed. Martin’s research contributed to this discovery by showing that the strengthening of neural connections during learning depends on protein synthesis occurring at the specific synapses being stimulated. Local protein translation has had significant implications for understanding the most fundamental processes in the brain, as well as neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Martin previously served as dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she also chaired the Department of Biological Chemistry and was a professor of biological chemistry and of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences. As dean, she launched programs in precision health and computational medicine and developed interdisciplinary research initiatives that bridged basic, translational and clinical science. She continues to direct a research lab at UCLA focused on the cell biology of synaptic plasticity and memory.
Martin received her Ph.D. in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University in 1991 and her M.D. there the following year. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Nobel laureate Eric Kandel at Columbia University. Before receiving her doctorate, she served in the Peace Corps as a public health volunteer in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
Martin is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her recognitions include the Eric R. Kandel Award, the Wilber Lucius Cross Medal, the McKnight Scholar Award and the Daniel X. Freedman Award.
