Mriganka Sur

Mriganka Sur (born 1953 in Fatehgarh, India) is an Indian-born neuroscientist working in the United States.

Biography

Sur did his early schooling in Allahabad, India at the St. Joseph's Collegiate School. He received the Bachelor of Technology degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) in 1974, and the Master of Science and PhD degrees in electrical engineering in 1975 and 1978, respectively, from Vanderbilt University in Nashville. After postdoctoral research at SUNY Stony Brook, he was appointed to the faculty of Yale University School of Medicine in 1983. He joined the faculty of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). in 1986. He was named in 1993 the Sherman Fairchild Professor of Neuroscience and in 1997 head of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. He is currently the Newton Professor of Neuroscience, head of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and director of the Simons Initiative on Autism and the Brain at MIT.[1][2][3][4][5]

Work

Sur is a pioneer in the study of brain plasticity and its mechanisms. Using experimental and theoretical approaches, his laboratory studies developmental plasticity and the dynamic changes in mature cortical networks during information processing, learning and memory. His laboratory has discovered fundamental principles by which neurons of the cerebral cortex are wired during development and change dynamically in adulthood. In landmark experiments, he “rewired” the brain to explore how the environment influences the development of cortical circuits. The retina, which normally projects to the visual cortex, was induced to project to structures that normally process hearing. Visual input altered the development of neuronal connections in the auditory cortex, thus enabling animals to use their "hearing" cortex to "see."

These findings have implications for restoring function after brain damage and for constructing neural prostheses for recovery from stroke or trauma. The Sur laboratory also studies genes involved in constructing the cerebral cortex, and the ways in which gene networks are influenced by brain activity. These studies are providing important insights into childhood disorders such as autism. Stemming from this work, a pharmacological treatment for Rett Syndrome has entered clinical trials.

By imaging calcium responses of single neurons and astrocytes in vivo using high resolution imaging methods, his laboratory has discovered that astrocytes have remarkably specific functional properties and mediate blood flow to active brain regions. This work has revealed the mechanism for noninvasive brain imaging methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The Sur laboratory has also shown how neurons of the mature visual cortex alter their responses dynamically based on the configuration of visual stimuli in space and time. The laboratory studies the mechanisms by which visual neurons at the earliest stages of cortical processing are influenced not only by “bottom up” visual inputs but also in “top down” manner by mental state, including attention and expectation. These studies provide fundamental information about higher brain mechanisms, including those involved in vision, cognition, and learning.

Honours and Awards

Sur has received the Charles Judson Herrick Award from the American Association of Anatomists (1983), the A.P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1985), the McKnight Neuroscience Development Award (1988), the School of Science Prize for Excellence in Graduate Teaching (2000), the Distinguished Overseas Lectureship of the Australian Neuroscience Society (2000), the Sigma Xi Distinguished Lectureship (2001), and the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (2002), and named among the top 50 alumni of IIT Kanpur (2010). He has been honored at MIT with the Hans-Lukas Teuber Scholar Award in the Brain Sciences (1997) and the Sherman Fairchild Chair (1998), and the Newton Chair (2008). He has been elected to the membership of the National Academy of Sciences, India, the Indian National Science Academy (2015),[6] the Rodin Academy Sweden, the Neurosciences Research Program, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Neuropsychological Symposium, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of London, the Third World Academy of Sciences.

Supposedly, the fictional southeastern nation of Mriganka (ruled by M. Bison) in the Street Fighter franchise is named after Sur, but this is debatable.

Major Publications

Selected from over 200 publications.

References

  1. ↑ "Star-Shaped Brain Cells Make Scans Possible". The Washington Post. 19 June 2008. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  2. ↑ "Mriganka Sur Laboratory at MIT". Sur Laboratory website. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
  3. ↑ "MIT : Brain and Cognitive Sciences : People : Faculty : Mriganka Sur". MIT Departmental website. Retrieved 11 April 2011.
  4. ↑ "The Picower Institute: Faculty + Research: Mriganka Sur". Picower Institute for Learning and Memory website.
  5. ↑ "Mriganka Sur, Ph.D. - Autism Consortium". Autism Consortium website.
  6. ↑ "Foreign Fellows Elected 2015 (Effective from January 1, 2016)". Retrieved 23 December 2015.
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