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NIMH Training Grant Recipient Wins Research Prize

Science Update

Neir Eshel MD, PhD

NIMH training grant recipient Neir Eshel was named the 2016 Grand Prize winner of the Science & SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists . Science, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science  (AAAS), and Science for Life Laboratory  (SciLifeLab), a Swedish national center for molecular biosciences, created the prize to encourage young scientists as they begin their careers.

An article on the AAAS website  describes the work honored, in which Eshel combined techniques, including activating and monitoring neuronal activity, to reveal details of how specific cells in the brain in mice calculate prediction error, a process that is central to learning.

Eshel, who earned a combined M.D.-Ph.D. at Harvard University, was also a summer intern for several years in the NIMH intramural program, working with Drs. Daniel Pine and Monique Ernst. He is now a psychiatry resident at Stanford University.