Sheila Nirenberg is an American

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, Biological neural network, neural circuits, and glia, and their Behavior, behavioral, biological, and psycholo ...

and professor at

Weill Cornell Medical College Weill Cornell Medicine (; officially Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University), originally Cornell University Medical College, is the medical school of Cornell University, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in Ne ...

. She works in the field of

neural coding Neural coding (or neural representation) is a neuroscience field concerned with characterising the hypothetical relationship between the Stimulus (physiology), stimulus and the neuronal responses, and the relationship among the Electrophysiology, e ...

, developing new kinds of

prosthetic devices In medicine, a prosthesis (: prostheses; from ), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through physical trauma, disease, or a condition present at birth (congenital disorder). Prosthe ...

that can communicate directly with the brain, and new kinds of smart robots. She is a recipient of a MacArthur “genius” award and has been the subject of, or featured in, several documentaries for her technology for treating blindness. She is currently the Nanette Laitman Professor in Neurology and Neuroscience and a professor of Computational Neuroscience in the Institute for Computational Biomedicine at the

Weill Medical College Weill Cornell Medicine (; officially Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University), originally Cornell University Medical College, is the medical school of Cornell University, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in Ne ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. Additionally, she is the founder of two startup companies, Bionic Sight LLC (prosthetic devices) and Nirenberg Neuroscience LLC (smart robots, AI).

Early life and education

Nirenberg grew up in Westchester, New York, United States. She obtained her bachelor's degree from the

State University of New York at Albany The State University of New York at Albany (University at Albany, UAlbany, or SUNY Albany) is a public research university in Albany, New York, United States. Founded in 1844, it is one of four "university centers" of the State University of N ...

and her doctorate from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

. She worked with

Constance Cepko Constance Louise Cepko is a developmental biologist and geneticist in Harvard Medical School. She is best known for her contributions in understanding the developmental biology of vertebrate central nervous systems. Education She was born in ...

, a neurobiologist who was studying development and degeneration of the vertebrate retina. Nirenberg's project focused on developing a new technique to eliminate specific interneuron cell types in order to understand fundamentally how neural circuits work.

Research career

Nirenberg stayed at Harvard University for her postdoctoral work, working in computational neuroscience, then joined the faculty in the Department of Neurobiology at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA). She was then recruited to Cornell Medical School (Weill Cornell Medicine), where she is now a full professor A few years later, she was able to decipher the

retina The retina (; or retinas) is the innermost, photosensitivity, light-sensitive layer of tissue (biology), tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some Mollusca, molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focus (optics), focused two-dimensional ...

's neural code This discovery allowed her to develop a new treatment for

blindness Visual or vision impairment (VI or VIP) is the partial or total inability of visual perception. In the absence of treatment such as corrective eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment, visual impairment may cause the individual difficul ...

. The treatment bypasses damaged retinal cells and directly communicates visual information through the

optic nerve In neuroanatomy, the optic nerve, also known as the second cranial nerve, cranial nerve II, or simply CN II, is a paired cranial nerve that transmits visual system, visual information from the retina to the brain. In humans, the optic nerve i ...

to the brain. Nirenberg has published her research in journals such as ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'', ''

PNAS ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of S ...

'', ''

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 ...

'', and '' PLoS One''. Her company, Bionic Sight, LLC (https://www.bionicsightllc.com/) is currently running a clinical trial to bring the treatment forward to blind patients (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04278131).

Awards and honors

* Bressler Prize, 2022 for Outstanding Accomplishments in Vision Science * Barbara McClintock Women Innovator Award, 2022 * Crain's Notable Women in Tech, 2019 * MacArthur Award, 2013 *

Beckman Young Investigators Award The Beckman Young Investigators Award was established by Mabel and Arnold Beckman in 1991, and is now administered by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. The Beckman Young Investigator (BYI) Program is intended to provide research support to ...

* Klingenstein Fellowship, 1998 * Frontiers of Science Award * Stein Oppenheimer Award

References

External links

Nirenberg Lab Website

Bionic Sight
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nirenberg, Sheila American neuroscientists American women neuroscientists Weill Medical College of Cornell University faculty University at Albany, SUNY alumni Harvard Medical School alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) MacArthur Fellows American women academics 21st-century American women