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Dr. Freund is director of the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and head of the Department of Neurosciences, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, in Budapest. He received his Ph.D. from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and his D.Sc. from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Freund was appointed junior research fellow of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences at the Semmelweis University Medical School and then at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. He subsequently became a senior research fellow at the Medical Research Council's Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit, Oxford University. He is the recipient of many national and international awards, such as the Demuth Award (Switzerland, 1991), the Cajal Medal and Krieg Cortical Discoverer Award (United States, 1998), and the Kemali Award (Berlin, 1998). In 2000 he was the first recipient of the Bolyai Prize, named after the Hungarian mathematician János Bolyai. In 2005 he received the Szechenyi Prize of the Hungarian Republic, the Hungarian government's highest recognition of scientific excellence. He served for five years as chair of the Central and Eastern Europe Regional Regional Committee of the International Brain Research Organization and, until 2006, as president of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies. In 2001 he was elected a member of Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina and of Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea, and, in 2004, as a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In 2007 he received the Scientist of the Year Award of the Science Writers' Society of Hungary, the Kavli Distinguished International Scientist Lecture Award, Society for Neuroscience, USA, and the Semmelweis Award and Medal of the Semmelweis University. This is his third HHMI international scholar award.
RESEARCH ABSTRACT SUMMARY:
Tamás Freund’s laboratory aims to uncover the molecular machinery of endocannabinoid-mediated control of a specific component of cortical networks: the cholecystokinin (CCK)-containing inhibitory neurons. CCK cells in the cerebral cortex are known to carry cannabinoid receptors and to generate high-frequency oscillations to assist associative synaptic plasticity (learning) while collecting and conveying emotional/motivational information. Consequently, malfunctioning of the CCK cell network results in learning and memory deficits as well as in mood disorders, most notably anxiety. The research may lead to a novel approach in the pharmacotherapy of anxiety and drug dependence.
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Photo: David Rolls
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