Topic: peripheral nervous system

Recognizes highly distinguished research on the brain, spinal cord or peripheral nervous system. Nominations require the official form and a current CV without a full publication list; up to two support letters are welcome. Materials must be in English and received by 15 December 2026.

After an injury in the adult mammalian central nervous system, lesioned axons fail to regenerate. This failure to regenerate contrasts with the remarkable potential of axons to grow during embryonic development and after an injury in the peripheral nervous system. Peripheral sensory neurons with cell soma in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) switch to a regenerative state after nerve injury to enable axon regeneration and functional recovery. Decades of research have focused on the signaling pathways elicited by injury in sensory neurons and in Schwann cells that insulate axons as central mechanisms r