The Brain Prize 2025 - The Oscars of Neuroscience

If you’re someone who appreciates the Oscars’ recognition of an artist’s lifetime achievement, but, like me, resentfully wish that a similar reward exists for outstanding neuroscientists, the Brain Prize has indeed granted you this wish (well, in addition to WiNUK Awards!).

The Brain Prize 

The outstanding Brain Prize is the largest international award for brain research, founded by the Lundbeck Foundation, and has been around since 2011, so far recognizing 49 scientists from 11 countries. Laureates are honoured with the meticulously crafted Brain Prize Medal (that I like to describe as the Oscars statuette of neuroscientists - only much more esteemed). 

The 2025 Brain Prize was jointly won by Dr. Michelle Monje and Dr. Frank Winkler for their outstanding research achievements in  Cancer Neuroscience.

The Brain Prize medal is created by renowned Danish sculptor Margrete Sørensen.

What is Cancer Neuroscience?

As the name implies, cancer neuroscience explores direct and indirect cross-interactions between neurons, cancer cells, immune system cells, and tumour microenvironment, or simply put, neuronal-cancer communications. By studying oncogenesis, metastatic spread, and treatment resistance, cancer neuroscience ultimately aims to substantially improve targeted cancer diagnosis and therapy.  

“We make the case that cancer neuroscience can stimulate both fields: cancer research and clinical oncology, as well as neuroscience and neuro-medicine, with synergy at the intersection of these disciplines. “ — Winkler, Monje, et al., Cell 2023

The Journeys of Michelle Monje and Frank Winkler: Combining Medicine, Oncology and Neuroscience

Michelle began contributing to neuroscience early in high school, channelling her passion for ice-skating into teaching this skill to children with developmental disabilities. Although her biology teacher’s comments initially threw off her plans to pursue a career in science - because she’s a woman - an inspiring female neuroscientist mentor re-ignited the spark. Michelle went on to study for her medical degree, specialising in neurology, in addition to completing a PhD in neuroscience. During her residency, as she cared for and observed brain tumour patients, she became interested in plasticity and cancers. Noticing that cancers seemed to flourish in neuroplasticity-rich environments, Michelle wanted to uncover more about how the nervous system may itself be influencing brain cancers. As a mother of five, she balanced paediatric neuro-oncology training with a postdoctoral fellowship. Indeed, her clinical encounter with a child having diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), the leading cause of childhood cancer-related death, was key when attempting and succeeding at establishing the first DIPG cell culture and xenograft model, and later identifying its likely cell of origin, an early form of oligodendrocyte precursor cells. In her independent lab, Michelle led discoveries on myelin plasticity, i.e. how neuronal activity influences myelination by stimulating oligodendrocyte precursor cell proliferation.  

Milan Gambhir Professor of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology, Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator

Frank had made up his mind to become a physician as early as two years old, influenced by his paediatrician’s knowledge and demeanour. As he started his neurology residency as a fresh neurologist, his research interest in neuro-oncology grew stronger, and so he pursued a postdoctoral program wherein he  investigated the vasculature of brain tumors and steps in the brain metastatic cascade. In his lab, Frank led discoveries that established the field of Cancer Neuroscience, studying malignant multicellular neural networks. His life motto has been understanding “was die Welt im Innersten zusammenhält“ (what holds the world together at its core, a Goethe quote from Faust). He advocates for the freedom of science, and has co-founded the movement Facts are the spine of our democracy. Democracy needs Facts – Science needs Democracy, to push for a free and fair society that allows for conducting free science. 

Professor for Neuro-Oncology, Heidelberg University Faculty of Medicine and Managing Senior Physician in the Department of Neurology. 

Their Winning Discovery, independently

Both Michelle’s and Frank’s labs, in two different parts of the world, were independently researching cancer-glioma connections and their role in tumor progression. They reached similar results, further solidifying their research standing in the field.

Frank and his group started investigating what causes glioblastoma, the most frequent malignant primary brain tumor, to be so invasive and almost incurable. Michelle’s lab sought to understand the assumed link between gliomas and neuroplasticity, and how the latter might be key in modulating tumor cell proliferation.

Their two seminal research papers, Frank’s “Glutamatergic synaptic input to glioma cells drives brain tumour progression”  and Michelle’s “Electrical and synaptic integration of glioma into neural circuits”  established the presence and functionality of excitatory neuron-to-glioma synapses via glutamatergic receptors expressed by glioma cells. These ‘hijacking’ circuits allow electrical stimulation from neurons to reach glioma cells, integrating these established neurogliomal connections with more regulated neuronal networks, which promotes tumor growth. Not only does this discovery explain how gliomas and glioblastomas invade healthy circuitry, but it also opens the door to huge possibilities of developing synaptic modulators as targeted therapeutic agents that limit tumor invasion, and increases the likelihood of achieving curable outcomes for neuro-oncology patients. 

The authors hope to conduct future research into the molecular factors that lead to and govern these neuron-to-glioma synapses, and the different patterns of electrical stimulation influencing them. Unraveling the intricacies of these mechanisms would undoubtedly aid in designing and conducting pre-clinical and clinical studies aimed at developing effective cures for malignant brain tumours. 

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This article was written by Suzana Sultan and edited by Julia Dabrowska, with graphics produced by Suzana Sultan. If you enjoyed this article, be the first to be notified about new posts by signing up to become a WiNUK member (top right of this page)! Interested in writing for WiNUK yourself? Contact us through the blog page and the editors will be in touch.