{"id":7447,"date":"2025-12-16T10:35:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T15:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/?page_id=7447"},"modified":"2025-12-16T11:03:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T16:03:29","slug":"24th-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/perl-prize\/24th-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient\/","title":{"rendered":"24th Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize Recipient"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"post-excerpt\">University of Basel Neuroscientist Botond Roska, MD, PhD, will receive the Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize for his pivotal discoveries in restoring sight to the blind.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<figure id=\"41817\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption alignright featured-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.unchealthcare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1159\/2025\/12\/roska_botond_iob-1.jpg\" data-slb-active=\"1\" data-slb-asset=\"1875632588\" data-slb-internal=\"0\" data-slb-group=\"41816\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/news.unchealthcare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1159\/2025\/12\/roska_botond_iob-1-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">Botond Roska, MD, PhD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The UNC School of Medicine has awarded the esteemed 24th Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/baselstemcells.ch\/en\/research\/research-groups\/roska\/\">Botond Roska, MD, PhD<\/a>, a medical doctor, biomedical researcher at the University of Basel in Switzerland, and the Director of the university\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/iob.ch\/\">Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology<\/a>. He is receiving the prize for \u201cdeveloping approaches to decode retinal circuitry and restore vision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roska will visit Chapel Hill on March 5, 2026, to receive the prize, a $20,000 award, and give a lecture on his work at the UNC School of Medicine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am deeply honored to receive the Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize,\u201d said Botond Roska, MD, PhD. \u201cThis prestigious award helps to draw attention to the major unmet medical need of visual impairment and to the promise that understanding neuronal circuits, together with new technologies, can offer hope to blind patients for restoring vision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Born in Hungary, Roska studied the cello at Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest before pursuing a degree in mathematics from E\u00f6tv\u00f6s Lor\u00e1nd University. He graduated summa cum laude with an MD from Semmelweis University and completed a PhD in Neurobiology with focus on electrophysiology of the mammalian retina at the University of California, Berkeley.<\/p>\n<p>Roska\u2019s lab at the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB) is dedicated to decoding the retina\u2019s intricate wiring and finding ways to either repair or replace it.<\/p>\n<p>The research team focuses on identifying the different cell types in the retina and mapping how they interact to transmit signals to the brain. They also investigate what happens when these circuits break down in conditions like retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration, which are leading causes of blindness worldwide. The team is also advancing precision gene therapies that target specific retinal cells, offering hope for treating inherited eye diseases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDr. Roska\u2019s groundbreaking research revolutionized our understanding of neuronal networks in the eye, laying the foundation for innovative therapies against blindness,\u201d said\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cellbiophysio\/directory\/mark-zylka-phd\/\">Mark Zylka<\/a>, PhD, Director of the UNC Neuroscience Center and chair of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/perl-prize\/\">Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize<\/a>\u00a0committee. \u201cBy harnessing optogenetics to render surviving retinal neurons light-sensitive, he and his colleagues achieved the first human proof-of-concept for treating degenerative eye diseases, offering hope to millions worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One of Roska\u2019s most groundbreaking achievements is optogenetic therapy, which uses light-sensitive proteins to reactivate dormant retinal cells. This approach has already helped a blind patient partially regain sight.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize, Roska\u2019s contributions to neuroscience and vision restoration have led to many other awards, including the 2024 Wolf Prize in Medicine and the 2019 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>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 and was the first president of the Society for Neuroscience. Dr. Perl passed away in 2014. The prize recognizes researchers for outstanding discoveries and seminal insights in the broad field of neuroscience, while celebrating the strength of the neuroscience research program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Six of its previous winners have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine or the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Five awardees subsequently won the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. Three other Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize recipients have gone on to win the Kavli Prize.<\/p>\n<p><em>Along with chair Mark Zylka, PhD, the Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/perl-prize\/perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-selection-committee\/\"><em>selection committee<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0consists of:\u00a0<strong>Rui M. Costa, DVM, PhD<\/strong>, professor of neuroscience at Columbia University;\u00a0<strong>Adrienne Fairhall, PhD<\/strong>, University Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Biophysics and co-director of the Computational Neuroscience Program at the University of Washington;\u00a0<strong>Adam Hantman, PhD<\/strong>, associate professor and the Edward R. Perl Investigator at the UNC Department of Cell Biology and Physiology;\u00a0<strong>Ben Philpot, PhD<\/strong>, the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology at the UNC School of Medicine and associate director of the UNC Neuroscience Center; and\u00a0<strong>Huda Y. Zoghbi, PhD<\/strong>, Distinguished Service Professor, Baylor College of Medicine and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Director, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.unchealthcare.org\/2025\/12\/hungarian-biomedical-researcher-named-24th-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient\/\">Original Press Release<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>University of Basel Neuroscientist Botond Roska, MD, PhD, will receive the Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize for his pivotal discoveries in restoring sight to the blind. Botond Roska, MD, PhD The UNC School of Medicine has awarded the esteemed 24th Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize to\u00a0Botond Roska, MD, PhD, a medical doctor, biomedical researcher at the University of Basel &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/neuroscience\/perl-prize\/24th-perl-unc-neuroscience-prize-recipient\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about 24th Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize Recipient\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96491,"featured_media":0,"parent":2777,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-7447","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>24th 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\/24th-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=\"24th Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize Recipient | UNC Neuroscience Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"University of Basel Neuroscientist Botond Roska, MD, PhD, will receive the Perl-UNC Neuroscience Prize for his pivotal discoveries in restoring sight to the blind. 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