The American Physiological Society (APS) selected Dr. Joe Santin for the 2024 Beverly Petterson Bishop Award for Excellence in Neuroscience.

The prestigious national award is given for outstanding progress/promise in the field of neuroscience or neurophysiology to someone who is not above the rank of assistant professor.

Santin is broadly interested in how the brain generates healthy electrical activity and, in turn, how neural circuits fuel it. His lab leverages the extreme behavior of frog hibernation to ask two crucial questions: how can a brain survive months underwater without oxygen or sugar, and how does it then flip the switch back to “on” with stunning ease? The first project delves into the cellular and molecular underpinnings behind this energy-saving ability, searching for clues to protect brains from stroke-like damage. The second project focuses on post-hibernation breathing, revealing how neural circuits defy the expected neurological toll of inactivity. Santin’s exciting research is paving the way for novel therapeutic strategies aimed at enhancing neural circuit resilience, ultimately aiming to unlock the hidden potential within our own brains.

Santin was nominated by fellow neurobiologist Dr. David Schulz. “Dr. Santin is an incredibly talented neuroscientist,” says David. “He is independent well beyond his years, has a knack for the innovative questions and approaches that few seasoned professors do, and is truly a dynamic, thoughtful, and aspiring scientist.”

Santin will be recognized during an awards ceremony at the American Physiology Summit in Long Beach in April. He will receive a $20,000 unrestricted award in support of his research program.

Santin joined our department as an assistant professor in 2022 as part of the university's MizzouFoward initiative.

The American Physiological Society (APS) is a nonprofit organization devoted to fostering education, scientific research, and dissemination of information in the physiological sciences.