Doctor Huganir completed his undergraduate work in biochemistry at Vassar College in 1975. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in biochemistry, molecular and cell biology from Cornell University in 1982 where he performed his thesis research in the laboratory of Doctor Efraim Racker.
He has joint appointments in the Department of Biological Chemistry and the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences. He was a postdoctoral fellow with the Nobel Laureate, Doctor Paul Greengard, at Yale University School of Medicine from 1982 to 1984. Huganir then moved to the Rockefeller University where he was an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology from 1984-1988.
Huganir became the Director or the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience in 2006.
Doctor Huganir’s career has focused on synapses, the connections between nerve cells, in the brain. Doctor Huganir’s general approach has been to study molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate neurotransmitter receptors.
Doctor Huganir’s studies have shown that the regulation of receptor function is a major mechanism for the regulation of neuronal excitability and connectivity in the brain and is critical for many higher brain processes including learning and memory and the proper development of the brain. Moreover, dysregulation of these mechanisms underlie many neurological and psychiatric diseases in several neurological and psychiatric disorders including Alzheimer’s, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis , schizophrenia, autism, intellectual disability, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as well as in chronic pain and drug addiction.
Huganir has published over 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Honors and
Young Investigator Award, Society for Neuroscience (1991) Racker Symposium Lecturer, Cornell University (1992) Stephen Schuetze Memorial Lecturer, Columbia University (1996) DeCamp Symposium Lecturer, Rockefeller University (1997) NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Award (1999) Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2001) Santiago Grisolia Award (2004) Elected to the National Academy of Sciences (2004) Elected to the rank of American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow (2004) Julius Axelrod Award, Society for Neuroscience (2007) Elected to the Institute of Medicine (2011) Prosser Lecture, University of Illinois (2013) Goldman-Rakic Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cognitive Neuroscience (2014).
National Academy of Sciences]
Huganir is also a member of the Cure Alzheimer"s Fund"s Consortium.
