Emmanuel Mignot is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine. He is internationally recognized for discovering the cause of narcolepsy.
Dr. Mignot is a former student of the Ecole Normale Superieure (Ulm, Paris, France). He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Paris V and VI University in France. He practiced medicine and psychiatry in France for several years before serving as a visiting scholar at the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Center. He joined as faculty and Director of the Center for Narcolepsy in 1993. He was named Professor of Psychiatry in 2001 and Director of the newly established Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine in 2010.
Dr. Mignot has received numerous research grants and honors, including National Sleep Foundation and National Institute of Health Research Awards, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and McKnight Neuroscience awards, the Narcolepsy Network professional service award, the Drs. C. and F. Demuth 11th Award for Young Investigators in the Neurosciences, the WC Dement Academic Achievement Award in sleep disorders medicine, the CINP and ACNP awards in neuropharmacology and the Jacobaeus prize. He is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians, the Institute of Medicine, and of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). He is the co-author of more than 200 original scientific publications, and he serves on the editorial board of scientific journals in the field of sleep and biology research. Dr. Mignot is an active member of several professional and governmental organizations. He has been President of the Sleep Research Society, Chair of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research Advisory board of the National institutes of Health, and Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Institute of Mental Health.
Most of his current research focuses on the neurobiology, genetics and immunology of narcolepsy, a disorder caused by hypocretin (orexin) cell loss, with indirect interest in the neuroimmunology of other brain disorders. His laboratory uses state of the art human genetics techniques, such as genome wide association, exome or whole genome sequencing in the study of human sleep and sleep disorders, with parallel studies in animal models. His laboratory is also interested in web-based assessments of sleep disorders, computer-based processing of polysomnography (PSG), and outcomes research.