Erin M. Schuman wins 2026 Nakasone Award for discovery on neural synapse function and change during formation of memories

(Press-News.org) The International Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO) is pleased to award the 2026 HFSP Nakasone Award to Erin Schuman for her breakthrough related to the function and plasticity of neuronal synapses, their mRNA triggered function, and change during memory formation.

Schuman’s groundbreaking research revealed that proteins critical for neuron communication, plasticity and memory storage, are produced locally at synapses, the junctions between neurons. This insight overturns the previous belief that all proteins are made in the cell body and then shipped out to synapses where they function.

“HFSPO is thrilled to honor Dr. Erin Schuman as her discovery is influencing the entire field of neuroscience where the focus is increasingly on individual synapses, rather than whole neurons,” said HFSPO Secretary-General Pavel Kabat. “This is the nature of the Nakasone Award: it is given to those pioneers who literally advance the frontiers of a whole discipline.”

The HFSP Nakasone Award was established in 2010 to honor scientists who have made key breakthroughs in fields at the forefront of the life sciences. It recognizes the vision of Japan’s former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who envisioned and created the International Human Frontier Science Program beginning with a charter by the global leaders of the G7 nations in 1987.

Schuman is the managing director at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany. She moved from her faculty position at the California Institute of Technology to join the Max Planck Society in 2009. A native of the United States of America, she is a member of EMBO, and the German and U.S. National Academies of Science as well the UK’s Royal Society. Her research has garnered numerous awards and acclaim, most recently the Brain Prize in 2023 and Körber European Science Prize in 2024.  She is a co-opted Professor of Biology at Goethe University in Frankfurt and professor of Synaptic Function and Plasticity at the Donders Center for Neuroscience and the Faculty of Science of Radboud University in the Netherlands.

Schuman’s studies have also influenced domains outside of neurobiology. In order to study protein synthesis, one needs to identify and visualize the newly synthesized proteins within cells. Schuman and her colleagues invented methods that allow scientists to tag, identify, and visualize newly synthesized proteins in any cell, tissue, or organ. Thanks to her advances, new tools have been created and are being used across the life sciences to identify proteins that drive cellular changes under normal and altered states.

For details on Schuman’s discoveries, standing, and citations, please see HFSP full description of the 2026 Nakasone Award.

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The Human Frontier Science Program was founded in 1989 to advance international research and training at the frontier of the life sciences. Its aims are to promote intercontinental collaboration and training in cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research focused on the life sciences. HFSP receives financial support from the governments or research councils of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK, the USA, as well as from the European Commission. Since 1990, more than 8,500 researchers from more than 70 countries have been supported. Of these, 31 HFSP awardees have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.

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