News

McKnight Scholar Award

Susanne Ahmari, MD, PhD Selected for McKnight Scholar Award

Congratulations to Susanne Ahmari, MD, PhD on her selection for a McKnight Scholar Award by the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience.   

The McKnight Scholar Awards are granted to young scientists who are in the early stages of establishing their own independent laboratories and research careers, and who have demonstrated a commitment to neuroscience. The Endowment Fund supports innovative research designed to bring science closer to the day when diseases of the brain can be accurately diagnosed, prevented, and treated. The program is highly competitive with only six scholars selected each year to receive the award.   

The goal of the Ahmari Laboratory is to identify abnormal neurocognitive functions in patients with OCD using optogenetic technology and other techniques to test the role of cortico-striatal circuits in OCD pathology and treatment.  Funding from the three-year award will help Dr. Ahmari to develop her research program and will help to support her work to identify neural circuit changes underlying OCD-related behaviors.