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Academician Zoltán Nusser, deputy director of our institute, after winning two ERC Advanced Grants (2011, 2017), together with Attila Losonczy (University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center) and Ivo Spiegel (Weizmann Institute), has won this year's Synergy Grant, the most competitive and prestigious grant offered by the ERC.

Schizophrenia is a serious neurological disorder that affects tens of millions of people and requires lifelong medication and psychosocial support. Effective, targeted treatment requires an understanding of the pathological processes involved, which in turn requires mapping the changes occurring in the neural networks of the brain areas affected by the disease at the cellular, synaptic, and molecular levels. The Nusser group has developed a groundbreaking, high-resolution technique that allows the study of synaptic proteins at the level of individual synapses in human brain tissue. Using this method, they discovered a selective molecular change (decreased NMDA receptor density) in a specific subset of excitatory synapses in schizophrenic patients.

Once again, we must say goodbye . . .

We last participated in the Researchers' Night program the year before last, as last year's event clashed with KOKI DAYS. It is true that, as we have experienced on previous occasions, only half of those who registered for the programs actually attended, but those who were there left with a wealth of experiences.  

The Junior Prima Award, established in 2007 by the Hungarian Development Bank and the Prima Primissima Foundation, is awarded to scientists under the age of 33 in the Hungarian science category as one of the highest honors available in their age group.  Two years after Suzanne Prokop's award, we now congratulate Krisztián Zichó on his great and well-deserved success, the Junior Prima Award!

Our three winners are László Biró, Márton Rózsa, and Richárd Sinkó. Their achievements to date are recognized and rewarded with scholarships, for which we offer our heartfelt congratulations.

Time has slipped away again.     

On July 12, Dezső Szabó, professor emeritus at our institute, celebrated his 100th birthday. This anniversary is impressive in itself, but Dezső deserves much more respect than that! An exceptional birthday for an exceptional person.

Intellectual property protection was the topic of the lectures held on June 16 in our institute's lecture hall. Researchers from HUN-REN Center and KOKI and the patent attorney of the EGIS pharmaceutical company presented practical examples of patent criteria and the steps involved in the process, and also shared their experiences gained during patent proceedings.

The Flerkó-Bárdos Memorial Medal was awarded for the first time in 2019, and its first winner was Csaba Fekete. The following year, Krisztina Kovács received the medal, and since then we have had a winner every year. This year, there are three: László Biró, Petra Mohácsik, and Éva Rumpler received special awards in the Junior category. Congratulations!