Dr. David Olson was awarded the First Annual
Dr. Mohsen Najafi Research Award in Medicinal Chemistry

Dr. David Olson won the award for his proposal to develop non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogenic drug analogs for the potential treatment of neorodegenerative disorders. He was a UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Pilot Awardee for 2020-21. 

Dr. David E. Olson is Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, as well as at the Department of Chemistry, University of California, Davis. He received his PhD degree from Stanford University. His research focuses on compound-induced neural plasticity and the development of neurotherapeutics. Since starting his career at UC Davis, he has published several highly influential papers (20 in total). Additionally, he has been awarded 13 grants as the sole PI. He was named a Hellman Fellow and was the recipient of the Jordi Folch-Pi Award from the American Society for Neurochemistry.