Fellowship

Professor Eric Kandel is a neuroscientist with research interests in the molecular biology of learning and memory. Using behavioural, cellular, and molecular approaches, his laboratory team tries to delineate the changes that underline simple forms of learning and memory. Recently, they have focused their efforts on specific risk factors for psychiatric disease and age-related memory loss in mice, observing the molecular mechanisms underlying the behavioural deficits. In the course of this work, they identified the existence of functional prions in the brains of Aplysia (sea slugs) and mice that are critical for the maintenance of long-term memory. Eric’s achievements have been recognised by the highest awards including the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine (2000).