I am delighted to announce my election to the European Academy of Sciences.
I was elected for my work on brain maturation, neurological and psychiatric disorders, the understanding of epilepsy, and, of course, alterations in GABA during maturation and in numerous diseases. This “shift” in GABA’s actions—which excites immature neurons due to high chloride levels within them—has been preserved throughout evolution, as my colleagues and I discovered in 1989… and has occupied me for nearly 30 years given its significance. Then came the discoveries that this situation is also observed in numerous neurological and psychiatric diseases, paving the way for a whole new field of research on disease treatment based on this return to a state of “immaturity” in these pathological conditions. The concept of Neuroarcheology lies at the heart of my academic work and, more recently, my therapeutic research on the treatment of autism and brain tumors. In summary, many diseases originate in utero and manifest through neural networks that remain immature, generating aberrant currents that disrupt brain function. They are therefore the obvious target for treatments aimed at selectively silencing these activities; a sort of pharmaceutical resection, so to speak.
I am delighted to see, after hundreds of publications and following my colleagues’ long skepticism, that this field of science is booming both cognitively and therapeutically. It just goes to show that, in science, time corrects and restores the facts—especially when well-established dogmas are challenged.
This is not my first European distinction, as I had previously received the Grand Prize from the European Epilepsy Foundation, a major award from the FNRS in Belgium, and the honorary title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Liège. I am delighted that, at an advanced age, this work is receiving recognition that validates the concepts I have strived to develop.
Photo https://www.eurasc.eu/
