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There are not only many types of people, but also many types of awards, and the high science of statistics has proven that once you've won a great award, it's easier to win another. However, the award that Balázs Hangya received on 10 July at Semmelweis University is not one of the more commonly known types of award. So much so that Balázs did not even know it existed.

"The European Molecular Biology Organization is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 2,100 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists." From today, 120 scientists have been elected EMBO membership*, including Ádám Dénes, head of the Neuroimmunology research team.

The latest work of the Molecular Cell Metabolism research group led by Balázs Gereben is published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The most exciting discovery of the study, first authored by Petra Mohácsik, is the discovery of a new molecular mechanism in astrocytes that may play a role in the development of astrocytic brain tumors.

A recent paper in Nature Communications by the Systems Neurobiology group led by Balázs Hangya shows that when deep brain inhibitory cells in mice are inhibited, they do not learn from their unpleasant experiences. What have researchers learned from this, and what should non-scientists understand from the results? 

From time to time, there are topics that many people think a little knowledge gleaned from the internet is enough to decide for themselves what the truth is. Just as during the pandemic, many believed it was best to decide for themselves which vaccines to trust and whether vaccination was necessary, there is a strong difference of opinion on the use of marijuana, which many consider to be an 'innocent' pleasure item. But what is the truth? What is known today about the active ingredients of marijuana and the causes of its physiological effects? To play on the title of a famous old film, what is the effect of cannabis on the synapses? 

Balázs Hangya and his team studied deep brain inhibitory cells and observed that when these cells were blocked, the mice did not learn from the negative stimuli they received. The significance of their discovery is reflected in the fact that their work has been accepted for publication in the journal Nature Communications.

The results published in the highly prestigious journal Science Advances, with Benjámin Barti as the first author, contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon of tolerance accompanying the regular consumption of cannabis at the molecular level.

Using a combination of state-of-the-art physiological and anatomical methods, Zoltán Nusser's group has succeeded in discovering how an axon of the same nerve cell can form synapses of different strengths with two different nerve cells. Short answer: synaptic vesicles are in different maturation states in weak and strong synapses. Their work was published in Neuron.

In a paper published in the prestigious journal Plos Biology, Gábor Nyiri, and his team present anatomically accurate active and passive model cells of two different interneurons that can be used to incorporate further experimental data and thus be used in a variety of ways to interpret the results of different physiological experiments and to create neural network models simulating hippocampal function. The paper has not one, but five first authors, which is unusual, to say the least, but which is perfectly understandable once you get to know the work.

At its 197th General Assembly, the Presidium of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences awarded the Academy Prize to Ádám Dénes, head of the Neuroimmunology research group, for his versatile and highly successful scientific activities. Hearty congratulations on this well-deserved honor!