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Eric Kandel
Eric Kandel 01.JPG
Kandel in 2013
Born
Eric Richard Kandel

(1929-11-07) November 7, 1929 (age 95)
Vienna, Austria
Education Harvard University (BA)
New York University (MD)
Known for Physiology of learning and memory
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 1956)​
Children 2
Awards Karl Spencer Lashley Award (1981)
Dickson Prize (1983)
Lasker Award (1983)
National Medal of GSS (1988)
Harvey Prize (1993)
Wolf Prize in Medicine (1999)
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2000)
Scientific career
Fields Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience
Institutions Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Notable students James H Schwartz
Tom Carew
Kelsey C. Martin
Priya Rajasethupathy
Scott A. Small

Eric Richard Kandel was born in Austria on November 7, 1929. He is an American medical doctor and a neuroscientist. He teaches biochemistry and biophysics at Columbia University. In 2000, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He earned it for his amazing research into how our brains store memory in tiny cells called neurons. He shared this important award with Arvid Carlsson and Paul Greengard.

From 1984 to 2022, Kandel was a Senior Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 1975, he started the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior. This center is now the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University. He is also part of the Scientific Council for the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. Kandel wrote a popular book about his life and research called In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind. It won the 2006 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and Technology.

Early Life and Education

Eric Kandel's mother, Charlotte Zimels, was born in 1897 in Kolomyia, which is now part of Ukraine. His father, Hermann Kandel, was born in 1898 in Olesko, in a region called Galicia. Both places were part of Austria-Hungary at the time. His parents moved to Vienna, Austria, at the start of World War I. They met and got married there in 1923.

Eric Kandel was born in Vienna on November 7, 1929. Soon after, his father opened a toy store. His family was Jewish and felt the danger from the Nazis. Unlike many others, they left Austria after Germany took control in March 1938. Jewish property was being taken away, and attacks on Jewish people were increasing. When Eric was 9, he and his 14-year-old brother, Ludwig, traveled to Brooklyn on May 11, 1939. They joined their uncle there, and their parents followed later.

After arriving in the United States, Kandel settled in Brooklyn. His grandfather taught him about Jewish studies. He then attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush and graduated in 1944. He also went to Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn.

At Harvard, Kandel studied History and Literature. He wrote a special paper about how three German writers felt about National Socialism. While at Harvard, he became very interested in how people learn and remember things. He wanted to understand how our minds and brains work together.

Kandel became interested in neuroscience after his favorite literature teacher passed away in 1951. Around that time, he met Anna Kris, whose parents were psychoanalysts from Sigmund Freud's group in Vienna. Freud was a pioneer in understanding how our unconscious mind works. This made Kandel curious about the biology of memory and motivation. In 1952, Kandel decided to study medicine at New York University.

Medical School and Early Research

Kandel started at the New York University Medical School in 1952. By the time he graduated, he was very focused on how the brain creates the mind. During this time, he met his future wife, Denise Bystryn. Kandel first worked in a research lab for six months in 1955-56. This was at Columbia University, in Harry Grundfest's lab. Grundfest was famous for showing how fast electrical signals travel along axons, which are parts of nerve cells.

Kandel was impressed by how much progress had been made using simple animals. A scientist named Stephen Kuffler used neurons from marine invertebrates (animals without backbones) to study the brain. After learning about Kuffler's work in 1955, Kandel learned how to make tiny electrodes. These tools could record the electrical activity inside the large neurons of crayfish.

A famous neuropsychologist, Karl Lashley, tried to find where memories were stored in the brain but couldn't. In 1957, Kandel joined a lab at the US National Institutes of Health. Around that time, scientists had found a patient, HM, who couldn't form new memories after part of his brain, the hippocampus, was removed. Kandel decided to study the electrical signals in hippocampus cells. He found that these cells had their own electrical activity. But he couldn't find anything special about them that explained why the hippocampus was so important for memory.

Kandel then realized that memory must involve changes in the connections between neurons, called synapses. He thought that studying the complex human brain might be too hard at first. He learned that even simple animals could learn. So, Kandel decided to study a simple animal model to understand how learning and memory work. He believed that what he learned from simple animals would also apply to humans. This was a risky choice, as many scientists thought it wouldn't be useful.

In 1962, Kandel went to Paris to study a sea slug called Aplysia californica. He learned that simple types of learning, like getting used to something (habituation) or becoming more sensitive (sensitization), could be studied using the slug's nerve clusters, called ganglia. He could stimulate different parts of the slug's nerves. This allowed him to see how learning changed specific synapses. In 1965, Kandel published his first results. He showed how a simple form of learning could change the strength of connections between neurons.

Learning and Memory in Sea Slugs

Eric Kandel 1978
Kandel in 1978

Kandel started working at the New York University Medical School. He helped create the Division of Neurobiology and Behavior there. With his team, he showed how the sea slug Aplysia could learn simple things. They studied the slug's gill-withdrawal reflex. This is how the slug pulls back its gill to protect itself. They found that this reflex could be changed by learning. For example, the slug could get used to a harmless touch (habituation).

By 1971, his team began studying how the slug formed long-term memory. They found that short-term memory involved changes in existing connections. But long-term memory needed new proteins to be made. This meant that the brain had to build new things to store memories for a long time.

By 1981, Kandel's lab showed that the Aplysia system could also be used to study classical conditioning. This is a more complex type of learning, like Pavlov's dogs. This discovery helped connect simple animal learning to more complex learning in humans. The team also mapped out the nerve circuits involved in these learned behaviors. This allowed them to see exactly which connections between neurons changed during learning. Kandel's work showed that learning happens when the strength of connections between neurons changes. His research with Aplysia led to him winning the Nobel Prize in 2000.

Molecular Changes During Learning

Starting in 1966, James Schwartz worked with Kandel. They studied the chemical changes in neurons that happen during learning. They knew that long-term memory needed new proteins to be made. In 1972, they found that a molecule called cyclic AMP (cAMP) was produced in Aplysia during short-term memory formation.

In 1974, Kandel moved his lab to Columbia University. He became the first director of the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior. They soon found that a brain chemical called serotonin helps make cAMP. This process is important for making the gill-withdrawal reflex more sensitive. By 1980, Kandel's team showed that a protein called PKA was involved in this chemical process. They also found a channel in the neuron that PKA could control. This linked serotonin's effects to changes in the neuron's electrical activity.

In 1983, Kandel helped create the Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute at Columbia. This institute focused on how molecules work in the brain. Kandel's lab then looked for proteins that are needed to turn short-term memories into long-lasting ones. They found a protein called CREB. This protein helps create long-term memories. When CREB is active, the number of connections between neurons increases. So, short-term memory changes how existing connections work. Long-term memory actually changes the number of connections.

Understanding How Memory Works

Kandel's lab also found support for something called Hebbian theory. This idea says that "neurons that fire together, wire together." It means that if two neurons are active at the same time, their connection gets stronger. They saw this happening in the Aplysia sea slug.

Kandel's lab also did important experiments using special mice. These mice helped them study how memory works in the brains of animals with backbones. Kandel's original idea was that the way learning works would be similar in all animals. This has been proven true. The same brain chemicals, proteins, and cell parts are involved in learning and memory in both simple animals and humans.

Continuing Work and Contributions

Since 1974, Kandel has continued his scientific work at Columbia University. In 2008, he and Daniela Pollak made an interesting discovery. They found that teaching mice to link a certain noise with safety helped them feel less anxious. This was similar to the effect of antidepressant medicines. This finding, published in the journal Neuron, could help future studies on how medicines and behavior treatments work together.

Kandel is also well known for the textbooks he has helped write. One important book is Principles of Neural Science. It was first published in 1981 and is now in its sixth edition. This book is often used to teach medical students and university students about the brain. Kandel has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1974.

Eric Kandel autographed baseball SfN 2009
Eric Kandel autographed baseball SfN 2009

He has lived in New York City and worked at Columbia University since 1974.

Notable Former Lab Members

Many talented scientists worked in Eric Kandel's lab. Here are a few:

  • James H. Schwartz (1964–1972): He helped write the important textbook Principles of Neural Science.
  • John H. (Jack) Byrne (1970–1975): He is a professor and director at UT Health Science Center. He also started a research journal called Learning and Memory.
  • Tom Carew (1970–1983): He is a professor and dean at New York University. He was also the past president of the Society for Neuroscience.
  • Edgar T. Walters (1974–1980): He is a professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
  • Kelsey C. Martin (1992–1999): She is the Dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She is also a professor in several departments.

Views on Vienna

When Kandel won the Nobel Prize in 2000, some media called him an "Austrian" Nobel winner. Kandel found this unfair, saying it was "certainly not an Austrian Nobel, it was a Jewish-American Nobel." He then received a call from the Austrian president. Kandel asked for two things to make things right. First, he wanted a street named after an anti-Semitic mayor to be renamed. This street was renamed in 2012. Second, he wanted Jewish thinkers and students to be welcomed back to Vienna. He also suggested a meeting to discuss Austria's actions during the Nazi era. Kandel has since accepted honorary citizenship of Vienna. He now takes part in the academic and cultural life of his hometown.

Awards and Honors

Eric Kandel has received many important awards for his work:

Film and Books

  • Petra Seeger made a film about him called In Search of Memory (2008).
  • Kandel, Eric R. (2018), The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ISBN: 9780374287863.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Eric Kandel para niños

  • List of Jewish Nobel laureates
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