CAMBRIDGE, MA. — JUNE 1, 2006 — McGovern Institute Investigator Ann Graybiel, the Walter A. Rosenblith Professor of Neuroscience at MIT, has a new professorship to her name, external to MIT, in recognition of her important contributions to the understanding and treatment of Parkinson's disease. The National Parkinson Foundation (NPF) awarded her the Harold S. Diamond Professorship, created in honor Miss Lynn Diamond of New York City and named after her late father. In 2004, Graybiel received the Woman Leader of Parkinson's Science award from the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, another major agency dedicated to Parkinson's disease.

"I am humbled and incredibly honored to receive these awards," Graybiel commented. "My hope is that our lab's work will help patients with Parkinson's disease." The NPF described Graybiel as "one of the worlds' leading experts on the basal ganglia, the complex and inaccessible parts of the brain affected in people suffering from PD and related conditions."

The basal ganglia not only influence movement, they also are critical brain centers involved in motivation. "It's a great puzzle," Graybiel said. "Somehow the same or related circuitry that gets damaged in Parkinson's disease is also involved in habit formation, addiction and procedural learning."

Graybiel's group is using experimental models of Parkinson's, addiction, and habit formation to study how animals learn to perform familiar tasks and how their neuronal circuits respond to drugs that affect the dopamine system. Graybiel will work as the Diamond Professor with two postdoctoral fellows, Ken-ichi Amemori and Mark Ruffo, who will be appointed as the Selma Diamond and Lynn Diamond Research Fellows.

About the McGovern Institute at MIT

The McGovern Institute at MIT is a research and teaching institute committed to advancing human understanding and communications. Led by a team of world-renowned, multi-disciplinary scientists, The McGovern Institute was established in February 2000 by Lore Harp McGovern and Patrick McGovern to meet one of the great challenges of modern science - the development of a deep understanding of thought and emotion in terms of their realization in the human brain. Additional information is available at: http://web.mit.edu/mcgovern

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