Roger Reeves receives Sisley-Lejeune award for translational research in intellectual disabilities

Johns Hopkins Medicine - Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences
News and events - Vanessa McMains

The Fondation Jérôme Lejeune has awarded Roger Reeves a 2012 Sisley-Jérôme Lejeune International Award for Translational Research in Intellectual Disabilities.  Prof Reeves is a professor of physiology and member of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He received the award, which included a 20,000€ cash prize, at a ceremony on 22nd November, in Paris.

Reeves studies Down syndrome, which occurs when someone inherits three copies of chromosome 21 instead of two copies. Using a mouse model of the disease, he and his colleagues treated mice with drugs that corrected developmental problems in the parts of the brain important for learning and memory, like the hippocampus and the cerebellum. One of these drugs is currently in clinical trials for the purpose of improving cognition and direction sensing in people with Down syndrome.

In honor of his award, the Department of Physiology sponsored a special lecture given by Reeves entitled From Mice to Mind: Translational Science in Down Syndrome, held at Johns Hopkins University on 5th December.

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