Depression Task Force Member Dr. Huda Akil Wins National Medal of Science!,
October 23, 2024
We are proud to announce that the brilliant Dr. Huda Akil, a founding member of Hope for Depression Research Foundation’s (HDRF) Depression Task Force, was honored yesterday with the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest scientific honor.
“I am deeply honored, humbled and grateful,” Dr. Akil said at the ceremony. “I’m especially grateful for all the opportunities the United States has given me to be a scientist and make contributions to our understanding of the brain.”
Dr. Akil is the Gardner Quarton Distinguished University Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry and the co-Director of the Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience Institute at the University of Michigan. Dr. Akil has made seminal contributions to the understanding of the brain biology of emotions, including pain, anxiety, depression and substance abuse. She and her colleagues provided the first physiological evidence for a role of endorphins in the brain; and showed that endorphins are activated by stress and cause pain inhibition.
Dr. Akil’s current research investigates the genetic, molecular and neural mechanisms underlying stress, addiction and mood disorders. She is engaged in large scale studies to discover new genes and proteins that cause vulnerability to major depression and bipolar illness.