THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AWARDS THE SECOND HALPHEN PRICE TO PROFESSOR LUC MALLET

Event Published December 3 2015
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On november 24, 2015, the Philippe and Maria Halphen Foundation and the Academy of Sciences chose to reward Professor Luc Mallet, the “Behaviour, emotion, and basal ganglia” team leader at the Institut du Cerveau – ICM, for his outstanding work developed in neuroscience research on obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD).

For its second edition, the Halphen Foundation 2015 price, amounting to 15 000 euros, was intended to reward international research on depression pathophysiology and anxiety disorders incorporating a pre-clinical or clinical experimental approach and preferably translational.

ABOUT LUC MALLET

Luc Mallet is the leader of the Behavior, emotion and basal ganglia team at the Institut du Cerveau – ICM and a psychiatrist within the psychiatry department and at the Neuroscience clinical investigation centre at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital. He is also a psychiatry Professor at the Henri Mondor and Albert Chenevier University Hospitals in Créteil, and associate Professor at the University of Geneva.

Luc Mallet’s research work aims at identifying the procedures of information processing within the basal ganglia in relationship with psychopathology, and developing innovative therapies for severe disorders which are resistant to medical treatment. Thanks to his expertise, the results obtained by M. Luc Mallet enable now a better understanding of how the symptoms of OCD arise (a combination of the approaches in experimental psychology, imaging, biology in humans and in animals).

His work also highlights, via a translational, clinical and experimental approach, a better way to treat the disease through the exploration of existing treatments’ mechanisms and their optimisation. Finally, to complete the therapeutic devices, the awarded research program suggests that the OCD disability could be better dealt with by developing an approach at the junction between neuroscience and anthropo-sociology, using the new tools offered by modern technology to optimise treatments, individualise the approach and avoid the patient’s isolation.

It is the second year the Philippe and Maria Halphen Foundation awards the Halphen Price. In 2016, the Price will amount to 20 000€ in order to honor a new French scientist and encourage his team to persist and find new treatments for mental health research.

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