News Release

Tel Aviv University researcher awarded 2016 MetLife Foundation prize

Dr. Inna Slutsky receives illustrious award for outstanding research in the field of Alzheimer's disease

Grant and Award Announcement

American Friends of Tel Aviv University

Inna Slutsky, American Friends of Tel Aviv University

image: This is Dr. Inna Slutsky. view more 

Credit: American Friends of Tel Aviv University (AFTAU)

Tel Aviv University's Dr. Inna Slutsky won the 2016 MetLife Foundation Promising Investigator Award in Medical Research for Alzheimer's Disease from the American Federation for Aging Research for her exemplary medical research in Alzheimer's disease. The award was presented on July 25, 2016, with the during the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Toronto.

Dr. Slutsky, the first Israeli scientist to ever receive a MetLife Foundation Award, is a member of TAU's Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, and Sagol School of Neuroscience. She has focused her research on the breakdown of communication lines between brain cells in the pathology of Alzheimer's disease.

MetLife Foundation gave four awards this year, distributing a total of $350,000 to Dr. Slutsky; Guojun Bu, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic; Mia Kivipelto, MD, PhD, of Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm; and John R. Cirrito, PhD, of Washington University School of Medicine. The awards recognize them as trail-blazing scientists who have made significant contributions to the understanding of Alzheimer's disease.

"Our Advisory Committee were so impressed by the potential impact of Dr. Slutsky and Dr. Cirrito's research that they granted them the Promising Investigator awards this year," said Dennis White, President and Chief Executive Officer, of MetLife Foundation at the awards ceremony.

"These four individuals have performed ground-breaking work, and the awards will help further their pioneering research," said past award recipient Dr. David M. Holtzman of Washington University School of Medicine during the ceremony. "Drs. Bu, Kivipelto, Slutsky, and Cirrito join a roster of past winners whose work has gone onto receive recognition in the field and beyond, including the Nobel Prize, the Potamkin Prize, and TIME Magazine's scientist of the year."

MetLife Foundation has been presenting these prestigious awards to outstanding researchers in the field of Alzheimer's disease for 30 years. Since 1986 it has granted more than $18 million to 88 awardees at 52 institutions in eight countries.

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Tel Aviv University (TAU) is inherently linked to the cultural, scientific and entrepreneurial mecca it represents. It is one of the world's most dynamic research centers and Israel's most distinguished learning environment. Its unique-in-Israel multidisciplinary environment is highly coveted by young researchers and scholars returning to Israel from post-docs and junior faculty positions in the US.

American Friends of Tel Aviv University (AFTAU) enthusiastically and industriously pursues the advancement of TAU in the US, raising money, awareness and influence through international alliances that are vital to the future of this already impressive institution.


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