Dr. Pasko Rakic is a distinguished neuroscientist whose pioneering work has fundamentally shaped our understanding of brain development and evolution. He currently serves as the Dorys McConnell Duberg Professor of Neuroscience and Professor of Neurology at Yale School of Medicine, where he has maintained a prominent research presence since his recruitment in 1978. Born on May 15, 1933 in Yugoslavia, he earned both his MD and PhD from Belgrade University before embarking on his career in the United States, initially at Harvard Medical School for eight years. His early transition from clinical neurosurgery to fundamental neuroscience research established the trajectory for his groundbreaking contributions to developmental neurobiology.
Dr. Rakic is internationally recognized for elucidating the cellular and molecular mechanisms governing cerebral cortex development, particularly his seminal work on neuronal migration and the regulation of cell proliferation and apoptosis. His laboratory pioneered the selective elimination hypothesis, which explains how synaptic connections are refined through environmental interaction during critical learning periods, now commonly referred to as synaptic pruning. His research has transformed our understanding of how neurons migrate and establish proper cortical layers, with profound implications for comprehending neurological and psychiatric disorders that arise during prenatal and postnatal development. These discoveries have provided the foundational framework for contemporary studies of brain development across mammalian species, including humans.
Beyond his laboratory achievements, Dr. Rakic has profoundly influenced the neuroscience community through visionary leadership and institution building, having founded and chaired Yale's Department of Neurobiology and directed the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience. Together with his late wife Patricia Goldman-Rakic, a fellow eminent neuroscientist, he co-founded the influential journal Cerebral Cortex and served as president of the Society for Neuroscience from 1995 to 1996. Despite receiving the inaugural Kavli Prize in Neuroscience in 2008, he continues to maintain an active research laboratory at Yale, where his team investigates the molecular mechanisms underlying primate brain development. His ongoing work remains pivotal in advancing our understanding of how genetic and environmental factors interact to shape the most complex structure in the known universe, with implications spanning basic science to clinical applications.
