Richard Lewis Huganir (born March 25, 1953) is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Neuroscience and Psychological and Brain Sciences, Director of the Solomon H. Snyder Department 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, ...

, and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Brain Science Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has joint appointments in the Department of Biological Chemistry and the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences in the

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established in 1893 following the construction of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, th ...

Biography

Huganir completed his undergraduate work in biochemistry at Vassar College in 1975. He received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology from Cornell University in 1982 where he performed his thesis research in the laboratory of Efraim Racker. He was a postdoctoral fellow with the Nobel Laureate,

Paul Greengard Paul Greengard (December 11, 1925 – April 13, 2019) was an American neuroscientist best known for his work on the molecular and cellular function of neurons. In 2000, Greengard, Arvid Carlsson and Eric Kandel were awarded the Nobel Prize fo ...

, at Yale University School of Medicine from 1982-1984. Huganir then moved to the Rockefeller University where he was an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology from 1984-1988. Huganir moved to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1988 as an Associate Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience. Huganir was an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1988-2014. Huganir became the Director or the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience in 2006. Huganir is currently the Chair of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research Scientific Advisory Committee and a recent member of the NIMH Council and the NIH BRAIN Multi-Council Working Group. Huganir is the past President of the

Society for Neuroscience The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is a professional society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., for basic scientists and physicians around the world whose research is focused on the study of the brain and nervous system. It is especially well k ...

and has served as Treasurer of the Society for Neuroscience.

Research

Huganir's career has focused on synapses, the connections between nerve cells, in the brain. Huganir's general approach has been to study molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate neurotransmitter receptors. 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 and is a major determinant of behavior. Moreover, dysregulation of these mechanisms underlie many neurological and psychiatric diseases in several neurological and psychiatric disorders including

Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

ALS Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or—in the United States—Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD), is a rare, terminal neurodegenerative disorder that results in the progressive loss of both upper and low ...

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

autism Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...

intellectual disability Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability (in the United Kingdom), and formerly mental retardation (in the United States), Rosa's Law, Pub. L. 111-256124 Stat. 2643(2010).Archive is a generalized neurodevelopmental ...

PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster, traffic collision, ...

as well as in

chronic pain Chronic pain is pain that persists or recurs for longer than 3 months.https://icd.who.int/browse/2025-01/mms/en#1581976053 It is also known as gradual burning pain, electrical pain, throbbing pain, and nauseating pain. This type of pain is in cont ...

and drug addiction.

Publications

Huganir has published over 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He has more than 71,000 citations in Google Scholar and an h-index of 145.
Pubmed citations

Google Scholar citations
Selected Publications * 2004 with GM Thomas, ''MAPK cascade signaling and synaptic plasticity'', in: ''Nature Reviews Neuroscience''. Vol. 5, nº 3; 173-183. * 2000 with HK Lee, M Barbarosie, K Kameyama, MF Bear, ''Regulation of distinct AMPA receptor phosphorylation sites during bidirectional synaptic plasticity'', in: ''Nature''. Vol. 405, nº 6789; 955-959. * 1997 with PR Brakeman, AA Lanahan, R O'Brien, K Roche, CA Barnes, PF Worley, ''Homer: a protein that selectively binds metabotropic glutamate receptors'', in: ''Nature''. Vol. 386, nº 6622; 284-288. * 1997 with H Dong, RJ O'Brien, ET Fung, AA Lanahan, PF Worley, ''GRIP: a synaptic PDZ domain-containing protein that interacts with AMPA receptors'', in: ''Nature''. Vol. 386, nº 6622; 279-284. * 1996 with M Symons, JMJ Derry, B Karlak, S Jiang, V Lemahieu, F McCormick, U Francke, A Abo, ''Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome protein, a novel effector for the GTPase CDC42Hs, is implicated in actin polymerization'', in: ''Cell''. Vol. 84, nº 5; 723-734. * 2007 with JD Shepherd, ''The cell biology of synaptic plasticity: AMPA receptor trafficking'', in: ''Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology''. Vol. 23; 613-643.

Honors and awards

*Young Investigator Award, Society for Neuroscience (1991) *Elected to 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 ...

(2001) *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 ...

(2004) *Elected to the rank of

AAAS Fellow Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS) is an honor accorded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to distinguished persons who are members of the Association. Fellows are elected ...

(2004) *Julius Axelrod Award, Society for Neuroscience (2007) *Elected to the

Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...

(2011) *Goldman-Rakic Prize, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (2014) * Bloomberg Distinguished Professor,

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

(2018) *Edward M. Scolnick Prize, McGovern Institute for Brain Research (2019) *Ralph W. Gerard Prize, Society for Neuroscience (2022)

References

External links

*
Johns Hopkins University Department of Neuroscience welcome pageBiography of Richard Huganir from The National Academies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huganir, Richard L. 1953 births Living people American neuroscientists Vassar College alumni Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni Yale University fellows Johns Hopkins University faculty Rockefeller University faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Members of the National Academy of Medicine Presidents of the Society for Neuroscience