Cornelia Isabella "Cori" Bargmann (born January 1, 1961) is an American

neurobiologist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, neural circuits, and glia, and their behavioral, biological, and psychological roles in health and disease. ...

. She is known for her work on the genetic and neural circuit mechanisms of behavior using ''

C. elegans ''Caenorhabditis elegans'' () is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a blend of the Greek ''caeno-'' (recent), ''rhabditis'' ( ...

'', particularly the mechanisms of

olfaction The sense of smell, or olfaction, is the special sense through which smells (or odors) are perceived. The sense of smell has many functions, including detecting desirable foods, hazards, and pheromones, and plays a role in taste. In humans, ...

in the worm. She has been elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

and had been a

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

investigator at

UCSF The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life ...

and then

Rockefeller University The Rockefeller University is a Private university, private Medical research, biomedical Research university, research and graduate-only university in New York City, New York. It focuses primarily on the biological and medical sciences and pro ...

from 1995 to 2016. She was the Head of Science at the

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is an organization established and owned by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan with an investment of 99 percent of the couple's wealth from their Facebook shares over their lifetim ...

from 2016 to 2022. In 2012 she was awarded the $1 million

Kavli Prize The Kavli Prize was established in 2005 as a joint venture of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Kavli Foundation (United States), Kavli Foundation. It honors, supports, and r ...

, and in 2013 the $3 million

Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences is a scientific award, funded by internet entrepreneurs Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan of Facebook; Sergey Brin of Google; entrepreneur and venture capitalist Yuri Milner; and Anne Wojcicki, one of t ...

Early life and education

Bargmann was born in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

and grew up in

Athens, Georgia Athens is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Downtown Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an Research I university, ...

. Her parents are European immigrants. She is one of four sisters, and the daughter of Rolf Bargmann, a statistician and computer scientist at the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

.Crevar. She grew up playing the piano and was exposed to literature and education from a very young age. She described her family as “frighteningly well educated”. She was inspired to study science because her older sister attended medical school. She also says that growing up in the space era fostered her love for science. She completed undergraduate studies at the

in 1981, with a degree in

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

. While at UGA she grew her lab experience by working in Wyatt Anderson's biology lab and then in Sidney Kushner's genetics lab. She completed graduate school from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

with a Ph.D. in the department of Biology in 1987 in the lab of Robert Weinberg. She examined the molecular mechanisms of

oncogenesis Carcinogenesis, also called oncogenesis or tumorigenesis, is the formation of a cancer, whereby normal cells are transformed into cancer cells. The process is characterized by changes at the cellular, genetic, and epigenetic levels and abno ...

, and helped identify the role of Ras in bladder cancer. She wrote her thesis on

neu Neu! is a German krautrock band. Neu or NEU may also refer to: Education * National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam * National Education Union, a British teaching trade union * Near East University, Lefkosa, Northern Cyprus * New Era Uni ...

, a non-Ras

oncogene An oncogene is a gene that has the potential to cause cancer. In tumor cells, these genes are often mutated, or expressed at high levels.

. Although the relevance of her research was doubted at the time, it later led to significant treatments in

breast cancer Breast cancer is a cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a Breast lump, lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, Milk-rejection sign, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipp ...

Career and research

Bargmann completed a postdoc with

H. Robert Horvitz Howard Robert Horvitz ForMemRS NAS AAA&S APS NAM (born May 8, 1947) is an American biologist whose research on the nematode worm ''Caenorhabditis elegans'' was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, together with Sydney Brenne ...

at MIT, working on

molecular biology Molecular biology is a branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecule, molecular basis of biological activity in and between Cell (biology), cells, including biomolecule, biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactio ...

mechanisms of

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, ...

. She began working on chemosensory behavior in ''

'', and achieved several breakthroughs, demonstrating, among other things, that

nematode The nematodes ( or ; ; ), roundworms or eelworms constitute the phylum Nematoda. Species in the phylum inhabit a broad range of environments. Most species are free-living, feeding on microorganisms, but many are parasitic. Parasitic worms (h ...

s have a sense of smell. Bargmann accepted a faculty position at

in the department of Anatomy in 1995. She was ultimately promoted from assistant professor to professor in 1998, and served as vice chair of the department from 1999 to 2000. She continued her studies of worm behavior and neural control, focusing on

at the molecular level. She looked for genes similar to those found by Richard Axel and Linda Buck to be the basis of smell and taste, and found those genes in the recently sequenced genome of C elegans. Her work led to discoveries of the mechanisms underlying complex behaviors, such as feeding behaviors. The work has continued to lead to a deeper understanding of the brain, sensory abilities, and neuronal development. Bargmann also identified SYG-1, a "matchmaker" molecule—a molecule that directs

neuron A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, excitable cell (biology), cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network (biology), neural net ...

s to form connections with each other during

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development (music), the process by which thematic material is reshaped * Photographic development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting * Development hell, when a proje ...

. In 2004, Bargmann moved to

. She says that the reason for the move is that she wanted more flexibility to focus on research. She served as an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute until 2016 before she took the President of CZI. Bargmann's lab uses a relatively simple organism, the nematode C. elegans, and its extremely sensitive sense of smell to study how genes regulate neuronal development, function, and behavior. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards including election to the National Academy of Sciences. She also served on the Life Sciences jury for the

Infosys Prize The Infosys Prize is an annual award granted to scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists of Indian origin (not necessarily born in India) by the Infosys Science Foundation and ranks among the highest monetary awards for researc ...

in 2012. Bargmann's research was funded by the

from 1995 to 2016. She was the co-chair of the BRAIN initiative and the Head of Science for the

. She won the Breakthrough prize in Life Sciences in 2013. Bargmann is married to fellow olfactory scientist

Richard Axel Richard Axel (born July 2, 1946) is an American molecular biologist and university professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University and investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His work on the olfactory system won h ...

, a Nobel laureate. Previously, she had been married to Michael J. Finney, who also completed graduate studies at MIT and is now a Director at Sage Science, Inc. For a vivid portrait of Bargmann as a young scientist working in Weinberg's lab, see

Natalie Angier Natalie Angier /ænˈdʒɪər/ (born February 16, 1958 in the Bronx, New York City) is an American nonfiction writer and a science journalist for ''The New York Times''. Her awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting in 1991 and the A ...

's book '' Natural Obsessions: The Search for the Oncogene''.

Notable papers

* UCSF (description of paper) * * * * *

Awards

* 1990–1995 - Lucille P. Markey Award * 1992–1995 -

Searle Scholar Award The Searle Scholars Program is a career development award made annually to support 15 young faculty in biomedical research and chemistry at US universities and research centers. The goal of the award is to support to exceptional young scientists wh ...

* 1997 - Taskago Prize for olfaction research. * 1997 -

W. Alden Spencer Award The W. Alden Spencer Award is awarded to an investigator in recognition of outstanding research contributions by the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Department of Neuroscience, and The Kavli Institute for Brain Science at Columbia Univer ...

for neuroscience research. * 2000 - Charles Judson Herick Award for comparative neurology. * 2002 - Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

. * 2003 - Member of the

* 2004 - Dargut and Milena Kemali Prize for Basic and Clinical Neuroscience. * 2009 -

Richard Lounsbery Award The Richard Lounsbery Award is given to American and French scientists, 45 years or younger, in recognition of "extraordinary scientific achievement in biology and medicine." The Award alternates between French and American scientists, and is a ...

* 2010 -

Perl-UNC Prize The Perl-UNC Prize is awarded internationally in the field of neuroscience. Its purpose is two-fold: to recognize researchers for outstanding discoveries and seminal insights in neuroscience and to celebrate the strength of the neuroscience resea ...

* 2012 -

in neuroscience * 2012 - Member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...

* 2012 - Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

* 2013 -

for the genetics of neural circuits and behavior, and synaptic guidepost molecules * 2015
Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Sciences
* 2016
Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience
* 2021
Salk Medal for Research Excellence
* 2024 - Gruber Neuroscience Prize2024 Gruber Neuroscience Prize
/ref>

References

Footnotes

External links

Bargmann labCori Bargmann's Seminar: "Genes, the Brain and Behavior"The 15 most amazing women in science todayBargmann CI
Author Profile Page on Pubget {{DEFAULTSORT:Bargmann, Cori 1961 births 21st-century American biologists 21st-century American women scientists American neuroscientists American women neuroscientists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Kavli Prize laureates in Neuroscience Living people Members of the American Philosophical Society Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Richard-Lounsbery Award laureates Rockefeller University faculty Chan Zuckerberg Initiative University of California, San Francisco faculty University of Georgia alumni Benjamin Franklin Medal (Franklin Institute) laureates Helen Hay Whitney Foundation fellows Members of the National Academy of Medicine