Robert C. Malenka was born on June 21, 1955. He is a professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He also leads the Nancy Friend Pritzker Laboratory at the Stanford Medical Center. He is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research with the National Alzheimer's Foundation has helped scientists study how the brain's nerves are affected by Alzheimer's disease. His main work involves studying how brain connections change and how these changes influence learning and memory.
Early years and education
Robert Malenka grew up playing sports in Belmont, Massachusetts. He continues to enjoy playing tennis and watching athletic events. He has a brother named David Malenka, who is now a doctor specializing in heart and blood vessel health at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, New Hampshire. Malenka was always interested in science. When choosing a career, he considered becoming a neurosurgeon, neurologist, or clinical psychologist.
For his undergraduate studies, Malenka attended Harvard University and graduated in 1978. After college, he earned both his MD and PhD degrees from Stanford University in 1983. During this time, he completed his psychiatric residency at Stanford and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco.
Career
Over the past ten years, Malenka has worked in his laboratory to study the different types of synaptic plasticity found in the human brain. His main objective was to clearly separate the steps involved in creating these various forms of synaptic plasticity and to identify the proteins that help change how well synapses work over time. In addition to his main research, Malenka also looks at how drugs like cocaine and amphetamine affect synaptic plasticity. Recently, he discovered a new type of synaptic plasticity in the nucleus accumbens, which is the part of the brain linked to reward pathways.
Professional organizations
From 1999 to 2008, Malenka was a member of the Society for Neuroscience's Programming Committee, the Renovis Incorporated Advisory Board, and the Merck Incorporated Advisory Board.
He is currently a member of the Scientific Council for the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation and serves on the board of directors for the Brain Research Foundation.
Malenka is also the co-founder of Circuit Therapeutics, Inc., a company he started working with in 2012. Circuit Therapeutics uses optogenetic technology to target specific neurons in patients with chronic diseases and damaged nerve function.
Publications
Malenka has written 274 scientific papers. One of his first important works was published in the first issue of Neuron Magazine. In this paper, he suggested that long-term strengthening of connections between brain cells requires changes in the receiving part of the synapse.
Awards and honors
In 1993, Robert Malenka received the Young Investigator Award from the Society for Neuroscience. This was his first major career award.
After graduating from Stanford Medical School, Malenka earned the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1998. In the same year, he also received the Daniel Efron Award from the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Malenka's first international award came in 2000. He was given the International Prize in Neuroscience by the Milena Kemali Foundation.
Malenka has received the Julius Axelrod Prize twice. The first time was in 2011, when the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology honored him with the award for mentorship. The second time was in 2016, when the Society for Neuroscience presented him with the same prize.
Talks and interviews
Huberman Lab Podcast, July 2023
CSHL Leading Strand, June 2018
World Economic Forum, February 2016