On June 8, Dr. Graham Collingridge, a Senior Investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute (LTRI), was a 2019 recipient of the Queen’s Birthday Honours, which recognizes the achievements of extraordinary people.
Dr. Collingridge was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his transformative work in our understanding of the cellular basis of memory and its role in brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease. The CBE is awarded for contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organizations and public service.
“I am delighted to receive this honour, which recognizes the work of the researchers I’ve had the pleasure to work alongside in my laboratories in Vancouver, Sydney, Bristol, Birmingham and, most recently, Toronto,” said Dr. Collingridge. “The basic understanding of how memories are formed and lost is central to devastating brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, chronic pain and depression.”
In 2016, the British-born neuroscientist, who is also Director of the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative diseases at the University of Toronto, was awarded The Brain Prize, the world’s most valuable prize for brain research.
“This is another prestigious honour for Graham, who was recruited to the LTRI nearly four years ago,” said Dr. Jim Woodgett, Koffler Director of the LTRI. “His lab’s advances in understanding the processes by which our brains store information to form retrievable memories is fundamental to knowledge and can help propel treatments for a variety of brain disorders.”