Mount St. Mary's Alumnus Wins the World's Largest Brain Research Prize

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, March 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Mount St. Mary's University alumnus David Ginty, Ph.D., C'84, has been named a recipient of The Brain Prize, the world's largest neuroscience research award, for groundbreaking discoveries that reveal how specialized nerve cells and spinal circuits allow us to sense touch and why touch can become painful or overwhelming in certain disorders. His research has defined key types of sensory neurons throughout the body and mapped how their signals travel into the spinal cord and up to the brain, paving the way for new approaches to treating touch over-reactivity and chronic pain.

Ginty's fascination with how we perceive the world began during his undergraduate years at Mount St. Mary's. "I was incredibly fortunate to land at the Mount, where professors who really cared about teaching and mentoring opened my eyes to the possibility of a life in science," Ginty said. "By the time I was graduating, I thought to myself, I want to be doing something like that—I want to be able to take my curiosity and explore."

Ginty is now the department chair and the Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He received his Ph.D. in physiology from East Carolina University and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. He was a professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine before returning to Harvard Medical School in 2013.

The Ginty laboratory uses a combination of molecular genetic, physiological, anatomical, and behavioral approaches to gain understanding of the development, organization, and function of neural circuits that underlie the sense of touch. Ginty's findings have defined the functional properties of somatosensory neuron types across the body, including enigmatic peripheral sensory neuron endings discovered by anatomists over 150 years ago. His laboratory has also discovered mechanisms of touch neuron activation and organizational principles of local spinal cord as well as spinal ascending pathways for touch and pain. Ongoing work is defining the basis of somatosensory system dysfunction in developmental disorders and chronic pain states including therapeutic opportunities to treat touch over-reactivity and pain.

The Brain Prize is the world's largest neuroscience research prize, awarded each year by the Lundbeck Foundation. The Brain Prize recognizes highly original and influential advances in any area of brain research, from basic neuroscience to applied clinical research. Recipients of The Brain Prize may be of any nationality and work in any country in the world. Since it was first awarded in 2011, The Brain Prize has been awarded to 49 scientists from 11 different countries.

About Mount St. Mary's University

Mount St. Mary's University is a private, liberal arts, Catholic university located near the Catoctin Mountain in historic Emmitsburg, Maryland, with a satellite campus in Frederick, Maryland's second-largest city. The university offers more than 70 majors, minors, concentrations and special programs for traditional undergraduate students, and more than 20 adult undergraduate and graduate programs.

SOURCE Mount St. Mary's University