Moses V. Chao received his B.A. from Pomona College and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in biochemistry. Chao is presently a professor of cell biology, physiology & neuroscience and psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine. His laboratory defined the genes encoding the nerve growth factor receptor and his research interests are in defining mechanisms used by trophic factors to change synaptic plasticity. Neurotrophins are responsible for many actions in the nervous system, including cell differentiation and survival and higher-order functions, such as anxiety, depression, drug addiction, obesity, pain and neurodegenerative disorders.

Chao served as senior editor for the Journal of Neuroscience for 11 years and is currently a member of the scientific advisory boards for the Simons Foundation, Target ALS, the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize, the European Brain Research Foundation, the Danish Research Institute of Translation Neuroscience, the Brain Prize Advisory Committee, the New York Stem Cell Foundation and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Chao was president of the Society for Neuroscience for 2012. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a recipient of a Zenith Award from the Alzheimer’s Association, a Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Julius Axelrod Prize.