{"id":7119,"date":"2023-11-29T12:39:45","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T17:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/?page_id=7119"},"modified":"2025-12-16T11:02:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T16:02:57","slug":"21st-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/perl-prize\/21st-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient\/","title":{"rendered":"21st Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize Recipient"},"content":{"rendered":"

Past winners include six scientists who went on to win the Nobel Prize.<\/p>\n

The UNC School of Medicine has awarded the esteemed 21st Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize to Maiken Nedergaard, MD, DMSc, from the University of Rochester, for the \u201cdiscovery of the glymphatic system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Nedergaard<\/a> will visit Chapel Hill March 9, 2023 to receive the prize \u2013 a $20,000 award \u2013 and give a lecture on her work at 4 p.m. in room G202 of the Medical Biomolecular Research Building (MBRB).<\/p>\n

\"\"
Maiken Nedergaard, MD, DMSc<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her seminal research centered on the discovery of the glymphatic system, a brain network that clears metabolites and waste products through cerebrospinal fluid while we sleep. She dubbed it the glymphatic system due to its reliance on glial cells \u2013 non-neuronal<\/a>\u00a0cells<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0central nervous system<\/a>\u00a0that do not produce electrical impulses but support and protect neurons.<\/p>\n

Since her 2013 discovery, which earned her the \u201cBreakthrough of the Year\u201d honor from\u00a0Science Magazine<\/em>, there has been increasing work and interest in the glymphatic system and its relevance in age-related neurodegenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer\u2019s disease; in neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism spectrum disorder; and in healing after traumatic injury. Research has continued to show this system is robust and biologically conserved in multiple species, and it is linked to the lymphatic system \u2013 a separate network of vessels through which lymph drains from tissues into the circulatory system.<\/p>\n

Nedergaard\u2019s later research and that of colleagues revealed that the\u00a0aquaporin-4<\/a>\u00a0water channel protein plays an important role in controlling the flow of cerebral spinal fluid between the spaces around blood vessels and around nervous system cells.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe age-old question of why do we sleep has long been a mystery,\u201d said Mark Zylka, PhD, chair of the Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize committee and director of the\u00a0UNC Neuroscience Center<\/a>. \u201cDr. Nedergaard\u2019s research showed that the brain has these tiny channels that open at night and help to clear out waste products while we are deep asleep. This nightly cleaning process is undoubtedly important in helping us to feel mentally refreshed when we wake up each morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Nedergaard earned her medical degree in 1983 and her doctorate of medical science in 1988, both from the University of Copenhagen. She conducted her postdoctoral training at Cornell University and the University of Copenhagen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank the UNC School of Medicine for this recognition, and I am honored to join the other distinguished scientists who have been awarded the Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize,\u201d said Nedergaard, who is also co-director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at the University of Rochester and the University of Copenhagen. \u201cDiscoveries like that of the glymphatic system are only achieved through teamwork, and it is important also recognize Jeff Iliff, Helene Benveniste, Steve Goldman, and many others who made important contributions to this work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize, established in 2000, is named after former UNC professor Edward Perl, MD, who discovered that a specific type of sensory neuron responded to painful stimuli. Before this, scientists thought that sensory neurons responded to all stimuli and that pain responses were sorted out in the spinal cord. The discovery had a major impact on the field of pain research, particularly in the development of pain medications.<\/p>\n

Dr. Perl passed away in 2014.<\/p>\n

Along with chair Mark Zylka, PhD, the W.R. Kenan Distinguished Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology at the UNC School of Medicine, the Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize\u00a0<\/em>selection committee<\/em><\/a>\u00a0consists of: David Anderson, PhD, the Seymour Benzer Professor of Biology at Caltech; Ben Philpot, PhD, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology and Associate Director of the UNC Neuroscience Center; Catherine Dulac, PhD, the Higgins Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard School of Medicine, Gwenn Garden, MD, PhD, the H. Houston Merritt Distinguished Professor and Chair of Neurology at the UNC School of Medicine, Liqun Luo, PhD, the Ann & Bill Swindells Professor of Biology at Stanford University, and Beth Stevens, PhD, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.<\/em><\/p>\n

Original Press Release<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Past winners include six scientists who went on to win the Nobel Prize. The UNC School of Medicine has awarded the esteemed 21st Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize to Maiken Nedergaard, MD, DMSc, from the University of Rochester, for the \u201cdiscovery of the glymphatic system.\u201d Dr. Nedergaard will visit Chapel Hill March 9, 2023 to receive the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7858,"featured_media":0,"parent":2777,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-7119","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n21st Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize Recipient | UNC Neuroscience Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/perl-prize\/21st-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"21st Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize Recipient | UNC Neuroscience Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Past winners include six scientists who went on to win the Nobel Prize. The UNC School of Medicine has awarded the esteemed 21st Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize to Maiken Nedergaard, MD, DMSc, from the University of Rochester, for the \u201cdiscovery of the glymphatic system.\u201d Dr. Nedergaard will visit Chapel Hill March 9, 2023 to receive the … Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/perl-prize\/21st-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UNC Neuroscience Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-16T16:02:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/782\/2023\/11\/nedergaard-maiken-300x225-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"225\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uncneuro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/perl-prize\/21st-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/perl-prize\/21st-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient\/\",\"name\":\"21st Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize Recipient | UNC Neuroscience Center\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/perl-prize\/21st-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/perl-prize\/21st-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/782\/2023\/11\/nedergaard-maiken-300x225-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-29T17:39:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-16T16:02:57+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/perl-prize\/21st-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/perl-prize\/21st-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/perl-prize\/21st-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/782\/2023\/11\/nedergaard-maiken-300x225-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/782\/2023\/11\/nedergaard-maiken-300x225-1.jpg\",\"width\":300,\"height\":225,\"caption\":\"University of Rochester Medical Center researcher Maiken Nedergaard is pictured in Flaum Atrium January 17, 2014. \/\/ photo by J. 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