Professor Nedergaard receives this award for her groundbreaking research on the glymphatic system (waste clearance system of the brain), and for elucidating the function of astrocytes in health and disease.
Assistant Professor Buggert at the Karolinska Institute is awarded the prize for his outstanding studies of how the immune system combats virus infections.
– Anders Jahre's medical awards honor basic research that pushes the boundaries of knowledge. I would like to congratulate Professor Maiken Nedergaard and Assistant Professor Marcus Buggert, and thank them for their dedication and determination. They both contribute to basic understanding that will mean a lot to many, says Svein St?len, rector at the University of Oslo.
The 2023 Anders Jahre Main Award for Medical Research
Activity in the brain creates metabolic and other waste products. These waste products are cleared from the brain by a specialized system termed the glymphatic system. Nedergaard first described this system in 2012. She has later characterized the system in detail.
She found that the glymphatic system is more active during sleep, which provides an explanation for our need to sleep. Further she has demonstrated that clearance of protein waste products that are implicated in neurodegenerative diseases is handled by the glymphatic system. Thus, failure of this system might cause dementia. Recently, Nedergaard has also demonstrated that the glymphatic system is involved in formation of brain edema after ischemic insults.
A specialized cell in the brain, called astrocytes, is centrally involved in the glymphatic system. Astrocytes support the function of neurons. Nedergaard did detailed studies of astrocytes making several important observations. It was these studies that led up to the discovery of the glymphatic system.
Nedergaard's research on astrocytes and the glymphatic system has far-reaching implications both for understanding how the brain normally works and what goes wrong when the brain is affected by disease.
– I am honored to be the 2023 recipient of the Anders Jahre`s Award for Medical Research. I am so pleased that the selection committee has recognized the importance of the glymphatic system - a brain fluid transport system, that my group, our collaborators and others have been working at since 2012. Our work highlights the importance of sleep for the clearance of metabolic waste products, that could lead to dementia. We are hopeful that the new insights recognized by this award will soon lead to new treatment options for patients with Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, says Professor Nedergaard.
The Anders Jahre Award for young researchers
Assistant Professor Buggert has studied how T cells can kill virus-infected cells during infections with HIV and SARS-CoV-2. He has particularly studied how virus-specific T cells that are resident in tissues participate in the fighting of virus. His findings have been important for our understanding of how the immune system works during COVID-19 disease.
– I am absolutely thrilled and deeply honored to receive the Anders Jahre Medical Prize for young medical investigators. I am humbled to be acknowledged among such esteemed colleagues and to join the ranks of previous recipients of this prestigious award. It is truly a privilege to be recognized for the work I have dedicated myself to in understanding the cellular immune mechanisms that mediate immunity to viral infections.
This recognition serves as a tremendous encouragement to continue our dedicated efforts in advancing our understanding of human adaptive immunity, says Assistant Professor Buggert.
The award ceremony is November 9th.
Read more about the Anders Jahre Awards for Medical Research.