Dr. Richard Bazinet was the winner of the 2010 Jordi-Folch-Pi Memorial Award. The goal of Dr. Bazinet’s research program is to identify the mechanisms that regulate brain lipid uptake and metabolism (signaling) and to identify the role of brain lipid metabolism in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases and neuropsychiatric disorders. Specifically, using kinetic approaches, Dr. Bazinet has recently demonstrated that the plasma unesterified fatty acid pool is a major contributor to brain fatty acid uptake and that rapid subsequent catabolism is involved in maintaining brain fatty acid concentrations.  He is currently examining the role of brain unesterified fatty acids in inflammatory and excitotoxic signal transduction.  Dr. Bazinet (right) is pictured above receiving his award from the Jordi Folch-Pi Award Committee Chair, Dr. Eric Murphy.  The committee recognized the strengths of Dr. Bazinet’s productivity as well as how rapidly he established a significant level of independence at this stage in his career.

Dr. Bazinet received his BSc from the University of Western Ontario and completed his PhD under the supervision of Dr. Stephen Cunnane at the University of Toronto in 2003.  Dr. Bazinet then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Stanley Rapoport’s Brain Physiology and Metabolism Section at the National Institute on Aging where he examined the brain arachidonic acid cascade as a target of drugs used to treat bipolar disorder.  Dr. Bazinet joined the University of Toronto in 2006, where he is currently an assistant professor.  Dr. Bazinet is also the 2008 recipient of the Early Career Award from the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids, and is an Associate Editor of Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids as well as a Senior Associate Editor of Lipids.