Stanford scientist Dr. Emmanuel Mignot spent 10 years breeding dogs to track down a brain switch that controls wakefulness — and the discovery just won him a major prize. Mignot, director of the Stanford Center for Narcolepsy, shared the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award this year with Dr. Masashi Yanagisawa, a molecular biologist at the University of Tsukuba in Japan.
The award recognizes their independent 1999 work uncovering the function of orexin, a brain chemical that wakes the body up. Orexin acts as a kind of switch, tipping the balance toward alertness rather than sleep. Both researchers arrived at the same conclusion from different paths.
Mignot’s Path to Narcolepsy
Mignot’s journey began in the late 1980s, when he joined the Stanford colony of narcoleptic dogs established by Dr. William Dement. Dement built the colony after hearing a veterinarian describe a dog that collapsed during excitement, a symptom Mignot described as “every time it gets excited — boom — it collapses.”
The dogs were not bred randomly. Dement and his team identified individual animals with narcolepsy, including a poodle named Monique, before settling on litters of Dobermans and Labradors that carried the genetic form of the condition.
The 10-Year Bet
Mignot trained as a psychiatrist and started with pharmacology, testing drugs like modafinil that treat narcolepsy. He quickly realized that approach would not find the underlying cause. He turned to genetics instead, despite having no formal training in the field.
“It was a huge bet, and it took me 10 years,” Mignot said. “But it was worth the price at the end.”
The challenge was practical. In 1987, when Mignot began his work, very little genomic information existed for dogs. Human and mouse genomes were just beginning to be mapped, and dogs remained largely unstudied territory.
Finding the Orexin Receptor
Mignot and Yanagisawa both published papers in 1999 describing orexin’s role. Yanagisawa came across orexin while studying receptors and chemicals in the brain. Mignot homed in on it through his work with the narcoleptic dogs.
The discovery reshaped understanding of sleep. Orexin became a target for drugs treating insomnia and narcolepsy.
The Dogs Behind the Research
Mignot’s own Chihuahua, named Watson, has narcolepsy. He previously owned another dog with the condition, named Bear. The dogs served as living test subjects for decades of research.
A Decade of Skepticism
The project faced doubts along the way. Some people did not believe the dogs had narcolepsy, and there were depressing moments. Mignot stayed convinced the work was headed in the right direction.
The Colony’s Early Years
Dement’s work on the colony began in the 1970s, shortly after he arrived at Stanford. He started a clinic to see patients with narcolepsy, and his audience at an American Medical Association conference in San Francisco included the veterinarian who first described the narcoleptic dog.
That dog had already been euthanized, but the description sealed the idea for Dement. He reached out to veterinarians to identify more dogs, and the colony grew from there.
Key Facts Box
– Award: Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, shared with Masashi Yanagisawa
– Discovery year: 1999
– Dogs studied: Narcoleptic colony founded by William Dement, including Monique the poodle
– Breeds: Dobermans and Labradors identified with genetic narcolepsy
– Research timeline: Mignot began in 1987, found the orexin receptor after 10 years
– Mignot’s background: Trained in psychiatry, joined narcolepsy research after pharmacology work
The research shows how a simple observation — a dog collapsing with excitement — can lead to a fundamental scientific discovery.
Source: livescience.com
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