ASCI / Emerging-Generation Awards, 2022

Emily A. Ferenczi, BM BCh, PhD, is a movement disorders neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School in Bernardo Sabatini’s Laboratory. Her research investigates how basal ganglia circuits communicate with distant brain regions such as the cortex and brainstem. She uses viral neural tracing methods, molecular techniques, optogenetics, electrophysiology and behavioral assays to probe the properties and function of long-range basal ganglia circuits. The goal of this work is to understand how these circuits contribute to the pathophysiology and complex phenotype of neuropsychiatric disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, Tourette’s syndrome and depression, and how these circuits might be specifically targeted for therapeutic intervention.