Beáta Sperlágh - Biography#

Professor Beata Sperlagh is the deputy director and Head of Department of Pharmacology and Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology of IEM HAS, Budapest; and honorary professor of Pharmacology, Semmelweis University, Budapest. She has 25-year experience, and is a leading expert in the field of purinergic signalling in the nervous system publishing over 65 full papers on this broad field.

Her major achievements are the discovery of the presynaptic P2X7 purinergic receptors regulating neurotransmission, identification of novel ATP release and glia-neuron cross-talk mechanisms and validation of P2X7 receptor as a new drug target in psychiatric and mood disorders. She is the Co-PI of an ERC Advanced Investigator grant and is also involved in in preclinical drug-development, owning patents and contracting with pharma industry. She currently has a 12-member research team applying multidisciplinary biomedical technology (molecular biology, in vivo imaging, electrophysiology, pharmacology, neurochemistry, behavior studies) to identify new purinergic drug targets in CNS disorders. Dr. Sperlágh is the President of the Hungarian Society for Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology; the Associate Editor of Purinergic Signalling, the Section Editor of Brain Research Bulletin, Inflammopharmacology, the Editorial Board member of British Journal of Pharmacology, Neurochemistry International and Neurochemical Research.

She was honoured by several awards, including: L’Oreal-UNESCO Scientific award for Women in Science (2005), and Gábor Dénes Innovation Award (2010). She has been organized 4 international symposia and the member of International Scientific Advisory Board of various conferences including EPHAR2016 and Purines meetings. She is the author of about 100 peer reviewed publications in international scientific journals (IF>300, Citations>3800, H-index: 33).
Laboratory webpage: www.sperlaghlab.hu