Abraham Zangen (; born 1969) is an Israeli

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

, head of the brain stimulation and behavior lab and chair of the

psychobiology Behavioral neuroscience, also known as biological psychology, biopsychology, or psychobiology,Psychobi ...

brain program at

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) (, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public university, public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Named after Israeli List of national founders, national founder David Ben-Gurion, the unive ...

(BGU).

Biography

Abraham Zangen was born in

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan (, ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv, and is part of the Gush Dan, Gush Dan metropolitan area. It is home to a Diamond Exchange District (one of the world's major diamond exch ...

, Israel. He earned his B.Sc. in

pharmacology Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...

from the

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

and his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

Bar Ilan University Bar-Ilan University (BIU, , ''Universitat Bar-Ilan'') is a public research university in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel. Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is Israel's second-largest academic university institution. It has 20,000 ...

in Israel in 1999. He then did a postdoc at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) until 2003. In 2003, he returned to Israel and established a laboratory at the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( ''Machon Weizmann LeMada'') is a Public university, public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, fourteen years before the State of Israel was founded. Unlike other List of Israeli uni ...

Rehovot Rehovot (, / ) is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Etymology Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu (movement), Bilu movement, proposed the name "Rehovot ...

, attaining the rank of associate professor in 2010. In 2012, he joined the faculty of Ben Gurion University of the Negev and was made a full professor in 2015. Zangen is married to Rachel, with whom he has six children.

Scientific career

Zangen studies

neuroplasticity Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity or just plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through neurogenesis, growth and reorganization. Neuroplasticity refers to the brain's ability to reorganize and rewir ...

in the brain

reward system The reward system (the mesocorticolimbic circuit) is a group of neural structures responsible for incentive salience (i.e., "wanting"; desire or craving for a reward and motivation), associative learning (primarily positive reinforcement and c ...

and the effects of brain stimulation on neuroplasticity in

psychiatric disorders A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness, a mental health condition, or a psychiatric disability, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. A mental disorder is ...

including depression,

addiction Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to use a drug or engage in a behavior that produces natural reward, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use can ...

and attention deficits.Abraham Zangen's Lab
/ref> During his postdoc at the NIH, Zangen was part of a team that invented a magnetic coil called the "H coil" for use in

transcranial magnetic stimulation Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive neurostimulation technique in which a changing magnetic field is used to induce an electric current in a targeted area of the brain through electromagnetic induction. A device called a st ...

(TMS); the coil allows deeper penetration of the magnetic field into the brain and the procedure wherein the H-coil was applied to TMS became known as "Deep TMS". The H-coil was patented by the NIH in 2002, and was licensed by the startup company Brainsway in 2003. Zangen has continued to do research on applications for Deep TMS and consults for BrainsWay. At the

National Institute on Drug Abuse The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is a United States federal government research institute whose mission is to "advance science on the causes and consequences of drug use and addiction and to apply that knowledge to improve individual ...

in Baltimore, Zangen worked on reward processing on animal models and learned that electrical stimulation of a rat's brain can induce neurochemical changes opposite of those induced by repeated exposure to cocaine. In 2007, then at the

, Zangen published the first study showing that brain stimulation in rats can reduce drug-seeking behavior, and began to develop applications of these animal studies to humans. The

MIT Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "''The''" in its name on April 23, 1998, under then pu ...

reported that Zangen and his team were evaluating the potential for disrupting areas of the brain that are overactive in cases of addiction or

Obsessive compulsive disorder Obsession may refer to: Psychology * Celebrity worship syndrome, obsessive addictive disorder to a celebrity's personal and professional life * Obsession (psychology), a persistent attachment to an object or idea * Fixation (psychology), persi ...

(OCD). In 2018, the

FDA The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...

granted de novo clearance to deep transcranial magnetic stimulation as a non-invasive treatment for OCD, after being cleared for treatment-resistant major depressive disorder in 2013 following multicenter studies conducted by Zangen and his team. In 2020, the FDA granted clearance for a different version of this technology for smoking cessation in the wake of another multicenter study. As of April 2021, over 100,000 patients around the world have been treated with Deep TMS. In 2023, a comparative study led by Zangen validated the efficacy of two different Deep TMS coils for treatment-resistant depression. The study also indicated clinical and electrophysiological features that can be used to select the best coil for a given patient. According to Zangen, this study was an "important scientific step forward towards personalized psychiatry." Zangen has been working with BrainsWay on a multichannel stimulation device that can target multiple regions of the brain in different ways, exciting some regions and suppressing others. Zangen has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles, reviews and book chapters.

Awards and recognition

Zangen has won prizes for his scientific achievements, among them the Medical Futures Innovation Award in the field of Mental Health and Neuroscience, UK, in 2007, the Sieratzki Prize for Advances in Neuroscience in 2010, the Juludan Research Prize in 2015 and the annual Innovation Award of Ben Gurion University in 2019.פרס מחקר יישומי פורץ דרך לפרופ' אברהם צנגן
/ref>

Selected papers

* * * * * * * *

References

External links