The Neuroscience Training Program is proud to announce and congratulate Uma Chatterjee, a third-year NTP student in Dr. Michael Cahill’s lab, for being selected as an award recipient for the prestigious 2026 NIH Outstanding Scholars in Neuroscience Award Program (OSNAP)!
The NIH Outstanding Scholars in Neuroscience Award Program (OSNAP) is a national honor that recognizes exceptional early-career neuroscientists whose research, scientific training, and potential have distinguished them as rising stars in the field.
The 2026 award recipients will be honored at the NIH OSNAP Award Symposium on January 28-29, 2027, at the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, where they will present their research, engage with NIH leadership and program officers, and explore funding opportunities within the NIH Research Programs. The award also includes an invitation to a special OSNAP Awardee Reception at the NIH campus during the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in November 2026.
Uma’s awarded dissertation research in Dr. Cahill’s lab utilizes reverse-translational approaches to probe the genetic and mechanistic underpinnings of neuropsychiatric disorders, with a primary focus on OCD pathophysiology and additional projects spanning bipolar disorder, MDD, and schizophrenia. Conducting the first known OCD protein quantification studies in the human brain, she works from biochemical analyses of postmortem human tissue to recapitulating sex- and region-specific mechanistic findings in mice across behavior, circuit function, synaptic plasticity, and pharmacological rescue. Her ultimate goal–driven by her own lived experience–is to study and develop novel therapeutic targets for OCD, with a particular interest in precision psychiatry, neuromodulation, and psychedelics/psychoplastogens.
This is a huge honor! Please join us in congratulating Uma and Dr. Cahill for this incredible achievement!
For more information on the NIH OSNAP award, visit: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/research/research-conducted-at-nimh/scientific-director/office-of-fellowship-and-training/outstanding-scholars-in-neuroscience-award-program