Congratulations to Mark Shen, Recipient of the 2024 Hettleman Prize
The late Phillip Hettleman, a member of the Carolina class of 1921, and his wife established the award in 1986 to recognize junior faculty members who demonstrate groundbreaking and innovative research along with future career promise. The recipients of the $8,000 prize will be honored at an upcoming Faculty Council meeting and deliver presentations on their research during University Research Week in October.
Dr. Mark Shen is a developmental neuroscientist, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, and investigator in the Neuroscience Center and Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities. Shen discovered an early biomarker for autism — the presence of excessive cerebrospinal fluid volume in the brain — that is detectable by 6 months of age in certain babies, which is two years before they develop autism. His research since then has focused on how CSF cleans the brain of neuroinflammation and how problems with that process can lead to the development of autism in the first years of life.