The triannual « GAGNA A. & Ch. VAN HECK », price is destined to honor a scientist and/or a medical doctor Belgian or foreigner whose studies have contributed to cure a pharmaco-resistant disorder or whose research has raised hope for a future cure. Given for the first time in 2003, this price is amongst the most prestigious Belgian prices in biomedicine.

In 2012, this price is attributed to Professor Yehezkel BEN-ARI, Directeur de recherches – INSERM U 901, Institut de Neurobiologie de la Méditerranée (INMED), Marseille, France, for his contributions to the Neurosciences and notably to the understanding of basic mechanisms of epilepsies.

Amongst the contributions of Professor BEN-ARI, we must emphasize the very original and quite heretic initially that GABA (gamma amino butyrique acid) the main inhibitory transmitter in the adult brain is in fact excitatory during embryonic and early brain development. In that respect, Professor BEN-ARI has shaken a unanimously accepted dogma until then.

The importance of this discovery for the understanding of the relations between brain maturation and electrical activity during the process is instrumental.

Thus, genetic or environmental anomalies that intervene during brain development will have a delayed clinical manifestation in the form of various clinical or psychiatric disorders. For instance neurons failing to migrate adequately that are misplaced or misconnected keep their immature electrical properties paving the way for therapeutic interventions based on the use of drugs that block immature but not adult currents. This “neuroarcheology “ concept is original and innovative.

A first clinical application of this concept is already under development to treat the Bourneville Tuberous Sclerosis, an epileptic disorder that has remained resistant to treatment. An additional translational consequence of the studies of Professor BEN-ARI is the application of this approach to treatments is in the domain of autism. Again, this is a development based on the discovery that GABA excites immature and pathological neurons.