Contests / awards

A first prize has been awarded to Andrew H. Miller, Emory Unikversity School of Medicine, Atlanta Georgia, USA for his work on identifying biomarkers and targets on the effects of inflammation on the brain to develop novel treatments for depression. His laboratory has made many seminal contributions to the field of brain-immune interactions. First and foremost is his groundbreaking study using a biologic antagonist to the inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF) for patients with treatment resistant depression. Based on this work Dr. Miller has further elucidated the relative importance of CRP as a translational biomarker. His group has demonstrated that CRP is an excellent proxy for other inflammatory markers in the plasma as well as the brain. Relative to understanding how inflammation affects behavior, using multimodal neuroimaging and non-human primate studies, his laboratory has demonstrated that inflammation affects reward processing, motivation and ultimately anhedonia, a core symptom of depression, by inhibiting the synthesis and release of dopamine. This work has culminated with the demonstration that in depressed patients an elevated CRP is associated with alterations in functional connectivity within reward circuitry that in turn is associated with anhedonia in patients with major depression .

A second prize has been awarded to Diego H. Pizagalli, Harvard Medical School, Boston Massachusetts, USA for his neuroimaging studies related to dopamine and personalized treatment of depression. His findings provide evidence that major depression, particularly with recurring episodes and perception of being trapped by stressful situations, is characterized by decreased striatal dopamine transporter expression, which might reflect a compensatory down-regulation due to low dopamine signaling within mesolimbic pathways. Moreover, he has demonstrated that rostral anterior cingulate cortex theta activity has incremental predictive validity and that acute enhancement of dopaminergic transmission potentiated reward-related striatal activation and corticostriatal functional connectivity in depressed individuals, suggesting that targeted pharmacological treatments may normalize neural correlates of reward processing in depression.

Another second prize has been awarded to Manuel Mameli, University of Lausanne, Switzerland for his work characterizing the habenula as a crucial structure related to the pathophysiology of depression. His research shed light on the cellular mechanisms underlying depressive-like phenotypes in addiction and mood disorders, ultimately opening avenues for potential future treatments. This may help to elucidate the molecular events occurring during long-lasting activity-dependent changes in the efficacy of synaptic transmission in anatomically-defined neural circuits.

Since its inception in 1965, the Anna-Monika-Foundation has achieved world-wide recognition within the scientific community dedicated to research in major depression. The major goal of the Foundation is to motivate researchers to participate in its bi-annual prize competition. To date, many outstanding researchers with significant contributions to scientific knowledge about depression have been identified and so honored. The list of laureates from Europe and the USA reads like a “Who’s Who” of prominent researchers in depression research giving the Anna-Monika-Prize wide spread international recognition. Respected scientists from around the world have contributed greatly to the success of the Foundation through their voluntary service as members of the Prize Jury.

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Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner:
Prof. Dr. med. Rainer Rupprecht
Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie der Universität Regensburg am Bezirksklinikum Regensburg
Universitätsstr. 84 | 93053 Regensburg
Telefon: 0941 941-1003

rainer.rupprecht@medbo.de

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Weitere Informationen:
http://www.anna-monika-stiftung.com