Michel Nussenzweig wins Howley Prize for Arthritis Research

Michel C. Nussenzweig, head of the Laboratory of Molecular Immunology at Rockefeller University, is one of this year’s two winners of the Lee C. Howley Sr. Prize for Arthritis Research. The award will be presented at the Evening of Honors reception of the annual Arthritis Foundation meeting November 14.

The Howley Prize recognizes those researchers whose contributions during the previous five years have represented a significant advance in the understanding, treatment or prevention of arthritis and rheumatic diseases. It was established with funding from the Howley family and is named for the former chair of Revco D.S., who was instrumental in the establishment of the Revco Arthritis Research Center at Case Western Reserve University.

Nussenzweig, who is Sherman Fairchild Professor at Rockefeller, combines techniques of biochemistry, molecular biology, gene targeting and transgenic technologies to better understand the molecular aspects of adaptive and innate immunity. He focuses on the roles of B lymphocytes and antibodies in adaptive immunity and dendritic cells in innate immunity, and his contributions to the fields of B cell development and dendritic cell function have provided important insights into the etiology of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and have paved the way to the development of novel therapies for the treatment of these diseases.

Nussenzweig obtained a Ph.D. working with Ralph M. Steinman at Rockefeller University and an M.D. from New York University School of Medicine. He completed clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and postdoctoral training in the lab of Philip Leder in the genetics department of Harvard Medical School. He returned to Rockefeller as assistant professor in 1990 and became associate professor in 1994 and professor and senior physician of The Rockefeller University Hospital in 1996. He has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 1999.

Nussenzweig is the recipient of numerous other awards, including an American Association of Immunologists-Huang Foundation Meritorious Career Award and a Solomon A. Berson Alumni Achievement Award for Basic Science from New York University. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Society of Clinical Investigators.

Nussenzweig shares the 2008 Howley Prize with Gerard Karsenty of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Past winners of the award include Rockefeller University’s Jeffrey V. Ravetch in 2004.