EU-NN Young Scientist Award 2020
Sponsored by the Klaus Grawe Foundation at the 11th Meeting of the European Narcolepsy Network (EU-NN) on September 5 2020, virtually held in Berlin.
The EU-NN aims to facilitate clinical and scientific progress in narcolepsy and other hypersomnias of central origin.
The award went to Dr. Ling Shan from the Swaab Lab, Leiden University, The Netherlands.
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The award recognises Ling Shan’s research on the effects of opiate use on narcolepsy.
His research project is a part of a successful long term collaboration between Prof. Hanna Swaab from the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and Prof. Gert Jan Lammers, and Dr. Rolf Fronczek from the Leiden University Medical Centre, Department of Neurology, Leiden and Sleep-Wake Centre SEIN, Heemstede.
Shan’s research shows that long-term use of opiate drugs may increase the number of hypothalamic hypocretin/orexin cells and might ease certain symptoms of narcolepsy, such as cataplexy. Full article: Opiates increase the number of hypocretin-producing cells in human and mouse brain and reverse cataplexy in a mouse model of narcolepsy
For Ling Shan, it’s the first award for his research on narcolepsy. He previously received the Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Foundation and the 1st prize of the young investigator award from the European Histamine Research Society.