Meet our 2024 Jury
The HBI has established an International Review Committee and task them with identification of the most impactful research project.
Dr Fernando Cendes
Fernando Cendes, MD, PhD, FAAN, FAES, is a full Professor of Neurology at University of Campinas – UNICAMP, and Director of The Brazilian Research Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology (BRAINN). This Center focuses on investigating the basic mechanisms that lead to epilepsy and stroke, combining genetics, neurobiology, pharmacology, neuroimaging, computer sciences, robotics, physics, and engineering. Dr. Cendes is Associate Editor of Epilepsia and serves in several editorial boards. His research is focused on Epilepsy, Neuroimaging, and Clinical Neuroscience, with more than 500 full papers published.
Professor Tarja Malm
Prof Tarja Malm is Professor in Molecular Neurobiology and the head of the Neuroinflammation research group at the A.I.Virtanen Institute, University of Eastern Finland. She is the lead of the “In vitro and Ex Vivo electrophysiology core facility” at the Biocenter Kuopio.
Her research focuses on understanding how and why microglia become malfunctional in different neurodegenerative diseases and to elucidate the functional impact of microglia-neuron interactions. Her group uses interdisciplinary approaches and develops novel, human based models to find therapeutic strategies to combat brain diseases. Her research group has pioneered the development of methodologies to differentiate microglia and microglia containing cerebral organoids from human induced pluripotent stem cells. In addition, her group has developed a unique multimodal pipeline to evaluate, in layer and cell-type specific manner with spatial resolution, the human neuronal operational properties in surgical resections from idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus and drug-refractory epilepsy.
Malm obtained her PhD in 2006 in Neurobiology in the University of Kuopio with the focus on glial cell biology. She carried out her postdoctoral training at the Case Western Reserve University, USA.
Dr Else Charlotte Sandset
Dr Else Charlotte Sandset is a vascular neurologist and Chair of acute stroke and general neurology at Oslo University Hospital Ullevål, in Oslo Norway. She obtained her medical degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 2006, and was a visiting research fellow at the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, Australia in 2016. She served as the Secretary General of European Stroke Organisation from 2019-2023, and has also served on the Board of Directors of the World Stroke Organisation. Dr Sandset is the Vice Editor of the European Stroke Journal, an Editorial Consultant for the Lancet Neurology and an Editorial Board Member of the journals Neurology and Stroke. Her research focus is on acute stroke, from prehospital triage and diagnostics to acute in-hospital treatment.
Dr Nelson Spruston
Dr. Nelson Spruston is the Executive Director and Vice President at Janelia Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Spruston is a neuroscientist with a long-standing interest in the cellular, synaptic, and circuit-based mechanisms of memory-guided behavior. In addition to his research, he is responsible for ensuring the smooth operation of Janelia’s mission, including research, training, and scientific outreach.
Spruston’s lab explores the role of the hippocampus in learning and memory, with an emphasis on the properties of a diverse collection of cell types and how they come together to form a circuit that mediates the learning and recall of episodic memories.
Spruston obtained a B.Sc. degree in Physiology from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada (1981-85) and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, USA (1985-91).
He did postdoctoral studies at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany (1992-95) and then spent 16 years on the faculty at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA (1995-2011) before moving to Janelia.
Prof. Mriganka Sur
Prof. Mriganka Sur is Director of the Simons Center for the Social Brain at MIT, which he founded after 15 years as head of MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. He is a pioneer in studying the organization, plasticity and dynamics of the brain’s cerebral cortex using experimental and computational approaches. Prof. Sur has discovered fundamental principles by which networks of the cerebral cortex are wired during development and change dynamically during learning. His laboratory has identified gene networks underlying cortical plasticity, and invented high resolution imaging methods for studying cells, synapses and circuits of the intact brain. His group has demonstrated novel mechanisms underlying disorders of brain development and proposed innovative strategies for treating such disorders. The only FDA-approved mechanism-based treatment for Rett Syndrome is based on his laboratory’s discoveries.
Prof. Sur received a B. Tech. degree from IIT Kanpur, and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University, Nashville. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society (UK), the US National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the World Academy of Sciences, the Indian National Science Academy and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.