The researchers are considered pioneers in the new field of cancer neuroscience
Michelle Monje (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) and Harald Sontheimer (Medical University of Virginia).
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To the point
- Research findings: Monje and Sontheimer have discovered that gliomas are integrated into the brain's neural networks and that the activity of the nerve cells promotes tumor growth. They have also identified mechanisms by which brain tumors increase neural excitability and thus protect themselves from therapy.
- New treatment approaches: Their work opens up new possibilities for treatments that specifically target the neural environment of tumors.
- Prize details: The prize, worth €60,000, will be awarded on July 3, 2025, in Hamburg.
Michelle Monje was the first to show that neural activity has a decisive influence on the growth of gliomas. Glioma cells are integrated into neural networks and respond to their electrical activity. She discovered that glioma cells themselves form synapses with neurons and are functionally integrated into neural networks. The cells thus use electrical activity to spread, alter their sensitivity to therapies, and protect themselves against chemotherapeutic attacks. Monje's work proves that tumor cells respond to both synaptic and paracrine signals that stimulates brain tumors to proliferate and grow. Her findings open up new avenues for treatment strategies for brain cancers.
Harald Sontheimer was the first researcher to detect nerve-like ion channels in brain cancer and demonstrate their crucial role in cancer biology. Glioma cells use ion channels to spread metastatically in the brain. Furthermore, he showed that glioma cells release neurotransmitters that cause epileptic seizures and simultaneously stimulate tumor growth. His pioneering work has uncovered several mechanisms by which gliomas increase neuronal excitability and identified new targets for tumor-associated seizure and was the basis for several clinical studies.
The glioma-mediated increase in neural circuit activity discovered by Sontheimer augments the growth-promoting effects of neurons on glioma pathophysiology discovered by Monje. The work of Monje and Sontheimer has fundamentally changed our understanding of brain tumors. They show that gliomas should not be understood as isolated cell growths, but as active components of neural networks with which they interact.
About the laureates
Michelle Monje earned her M.D. and Ph.D. in neuroscience at Stanford University and completed her residency in neurology through the Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School Partners program. She then returned to Stanford to complete a clinical fellowship in pediatric neuro-oncology. Today, she is a professor of neurology and an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Stanford. Michelle Monje has received numerous awards, including the NIH Director's Pioneer Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, Richard Lounsbery Award from the National Academy of Sciences and the Brain Prize. She is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and National Academy of Sciences.
Harald Sontheimer received his PhD from Heidelberg University and completed his postdoctoral training at Yale University. He then held chairs at the University of Alabama in Birmingham and Virginia Polytechnic University. In 2015, he founded the first "School of Neuroscience," which now trains over 1,000 students annually. Since 2021, he has been head of the Department of Neuroscience at the Medical University of Virginia. Sontheimer is a co-founder of several biotech companies that translate findings from neuroscience into clinical practice.
