Thomas Südhof

Professor Thomas C. Südhof is a neuroscientist whose work has described how neurons communicate with each other at synapses and how such communication becomes impaired in neuropsychiatric and neurological diseases. He obtained his MD and doctoral degrees from the University of Göttingen, Germany and trained as a postdoctoral fellow at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas. He currently holds the position of Avram Goldstein Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Prof Südhof is known particularly for the discovery of how synapses rapidly release neurotransmitters and how neurons form synapses via engagement of trans-synaptic adhesion molecules. His research earned him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 2013. Currently, his studies centre on the question of how synapses in the brain are formed and how their properties are shaped, resulting in the identification of trans-neuronal signalling mechanisms that control synaptic connections.