Gord Fishell, PhD, is recognized for his work on the generation of cortical interneurons and for understanding their contribution to cortical development and function. Gord’s seminal discoveries concerning the interneuron properties both in normal brain development, as well as their involvement in neuropsychiatric diseases have allowed him to understand both their development and how they can be targeted and manipulated in less genetically amenable species, such as humans. His work has emphasized that cortical interneuron development combines early genetic programs imbued on interneurons at birth and modulated by the circuits they integrate into in the cortex. His work also emphasizes that development and circuit function are intimately connected in normal brain, as well as in dysfunction in disease.

Gord is a pioneer in the use of molecular genetic approaches to decipher the development, organization and function of cortical interneurons. His studies have provided fundamental understanding of the origins, genetic identities and physiological properties of cortical interneurons and how they are established in development. 

His laboratory has worked to understand the inhibitory cells that regulate excitatory signaling in the brain.  In its simplest sense, brain inhibition is the stop signal that prevents the brain from becoming over-excited.  In practice it is much more nuanced. 

Gord’s scientific contributions have been recognized in many ways, including giving the presidential lecture at the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) in 2014, a Harvey lecture in 2022, and election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2023.

Holly A. Ingraham, PhD, is the Herzstein Endowed Professor in the Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology Department at University of California San Francisco. Her research focuses on sex differences and hormone-responsive nodes in the brain and peripheral tissues that maintain metabolic, skeletal and gut physiology in females.

Through question-driven basic science, Ingraham aims to elucidate the molecular underpinnings of adaptive responses in female physiology across the lifespan to better understand how hormonal fluctuations during the reproductive and post-reproductive periods impact women’s health. She has made fundamental contributions to the field of hormone signaling and sex-dependent physiological regulatory mechanisms. Her most recent high-impact studies have been highlighted in the "New York Times Science" section and the NIH Director’s Blog.

Ingraham chaired and served on scores of NIH and other scientific review panels. She serves on scientific advisory boards and is a founder of a new biotech venture to improve women’s health. In addition to her scientific awards, Ingraham is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She earned her doctorate from the University of California, San Diego.

David D. Moore, PhD, is the Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Professor and Chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology at the University of California, Berkeley. 

The focus of the Moore laboratory is the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily, particularly orphan and former orphan receptors with important regulatory functions in the areas of metabolism and cancer. He has authored more than 200 original research reports and has been awarded 11 patents on various technologies related to nuclear hormone receptors. He has received the Edwin B. Astwood Award from the Endocrine Society, the Transatlantic Medal from the UK Society for Endocrinology, the Adolf Windaus Prize from the Falk Foundation and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.  

Moore was the Robert R. P. Doherty Jr. - Welch Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and professor in the Departments of Medicine and Molecular and Human Genetics at the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) until 2021. Before coming to BCM in 1997, he was an assistant and associate professor in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, as well as assistant and associate Molecular Biologist in the Department of Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Samuel L. Pfaff, PhD, is a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the head of the Goldman Laboratory for Neural Circuit Dynamics in the Gene Expression Laboratory. He is the Benjamin H. Lewis Chair in Neuroscience at the Salk Institute and holds appointments with the Biology, Biomedical Sciences, Neuroscience and Bioengineering programs at the University of California, San Diego. He is the recipient of the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, McKnight Scholar Award, PEW Scholar Award, Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow Award and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Pfaff is best known for characterizing one of the earliest examples of molecular diversification among neuronal subtypes through his analyses of the combinatorial activity of the LIM-homeodomain gene family in spinal neurons. The simple concept that genes can be used to mark specific neuronal subtypes is revolutionizing how functional studies of circuits are performed and has led to important tools for guiding the conversion of stem cells into neuron subtypes.

He received his bachelor's degree in biology from Carleton College and his doctorate in Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. His post doctoral training was completed at Vanderbilt University with William Taylor on gene regulation followed by Columbia University with Thomas Jessell on neural development. 

Franck Polleux, PhD, is a professor of Neuroscience at Columbia University and a Principal Investigator at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute in New York. 

Polleux focuses on the identification of novel cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the development and function of synapses, neurons and circuits in the mammalian neocortex. More recently, his lab started studying the genetic basis of human brain evolution by focusing on the role of human-specific gene duplications as genetic modifiers of synaptic connectivity, circuit function and their impact on cognition. His work demonstrates that human-specific genes such as SRGAP2B/C not only represent human-specific modifiers of brain development but also represent unique human-specific disease modifiers in the context of neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders. In collaboration with the lab of Attila Losonczy, he recently started to study the synaptic and molecular basis of feature selectivity of place cell emergence using mouse CA1 hippocampal pyramidal neurons as a model. 

Polleux was awarded the Albert L. Lehninger Research Prize for postdoctoral research, the 2005 NARSAD Young Investigator Award, the 2015 Foundation Roger De Spoelberch Prize, a 2021 Nomis Foundation Award and the 2021 R35 Research Program Award, a career award from the NIH-National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). 

He obtained his PhD at Université Claude Bernard in Lyon France under the supervision of Henry Kennedy and Colette Dehay. He completed his postdoctoral training with Anirvan Ghosh at Johns Hopkins University. He started his independent research career at UNC-Chapel Hill, then moved to Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA.  

Robert G. Roeder, PhD, is the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at The Rockefeller University. For over 50 years he has pioneered biochemical studies of the mechanism and regulation of gene transcription in animal cells. He is best known for his discovery and mechanistic analyses of the nuclear enzymes (RNA polymerases I, II, III) that transcribe the three major classes of RNA ((Ribonucleic acid), cognate general initiation factors, the prototype gene-specific transcriptional activator and a variety of ubiquitous and tissue-specific transcriptional co-activators, such as the Mediator complex, that facilitate interactions between enhancers and promoters. Key features of these studies were the development of cell-free systems in which cloned genes (as DNA or recombinant chromatin templates) are accurately transcribed by purified factors as they are in the cell; and extensions to biological processes that include development, cell differentiation and cancer.

His numerous honors include the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, the NAS-US Steel Award in Molecular Biology, the Alfred P. Sloan Prize, the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the Gairdner Foundation International Award, the Albert Lasker Award in Basic Medical Research, the Salk Medal for Scientific Excellence, the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, the Kyoto Prize in Basic Science and election to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Roeder received a bachelor’s degree from Wabash College and a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Washington. 

John L. R. Rubenstein, MD, PhD, is a resident physician in child psychiatry at Stanford specializing in autism. Rubenstein devised a method to identify genes that are preferentially expressed in the embryonic forebrain, which led to the discovery of the Dlx2 and Tbr1 transcription factors. These genes served as entry points for his studies at UCSF where, since 1991, has performed genetic studies of mammalian forebrain development and human neuropsychiatric disorders. Rubenstein has investigated: organization of the embryonic forebrain; forebrain patterning centers and their regulation of cortical organization; transcription factors and enhancers that control regional and cell-type specification of brain subdivisions; differentiation, migration and function of GABAergic interneurons; translational studies of treatment for epilepsy; analyses of transcription factor mutations that may contribute to autism.

Rubenstein trained eight doctoral students and over 50 postdoctoral fellows. Rubenstein has extensive mentoring experience and several trainees are now professors, including: Stewart Anderson, Sonia Garel, Robert Hevner, Juhee Jeong, Eirene Markenscoff-Papadimitriou, Oscar Marin, Matt Porteus, Lori Sussel, Daniel Vogt.

Rubenstein earned a Phi Beta Kappa as a chemistry major at Stanford. In the Medical Scientist Training Program at Stanford Rubenstein, he earned a doctorate in Biophysics for his studies on the effect of cholesterol on the motions of phospholipids in membranes as well as the biogenesis of plasma membrane proteins with Harden McConnell and James Rothman. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Pasteur Institute with Francois Jacob and J.F. Nicolas, Rubenstein was one of the discoverers that antisense RNA can inhibit gene expression. 

Hongjun Song, PhD, is the Perelman Professor of Neuroscience at Perelman School of Medicine of University of Pennsylvania. The research in Song’s laboratory focuses on the development and plasticity in the mammalian nervous system, in particularly, adult neurogenesis and euroepigenetics/neuroepitranscriptomics. His laboratory also uses patient-derived stem cells and tumor cells in 2D cultures and 3D organoids to investigate human brain development and disorders.

Song has won a number of awards, including Young Investigator Award from the Society for Neuroscience (SFN), Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award and Landis Mentorship Award for Outstanding Mentorship from National Institutes of Health. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Song received his bachelor's degree from Peking University, a master’s degree from Columbia University and a doctorate from University of California at San Diego.