Professor Luke O’Neill honoured for inflammation and immunity research
Posted on: 09 May 2018
Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity, Luke O’Neill, has won the 2018 Seymour and Vivian Milstein Award, the highest honour that can be bestowed by the International Cytokine and Interferon Society, for world-leading research in deciphering the role of innate immunity in the host immune response.
He has been honoured with joint recipient, and another global leader in the field, Dr Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, who works at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the US.
Professor O’Neill has made a number of seminal contributions to our understanding of the molecular basis of inflammation and immunity. He is one of the key figures whose research and publications are responsible for the major increase in interest among immunologists in innate immunity over the past 20 years. He is in the top 1% of immunologists in the world, based on citations per paper, according to Thomson Reuters/Clarivates.
Professor O’Neill said: “I am honoured indeed to win this award and especially want to thank my superb team of researchers, both past and present who made this possible.”
President of the ICIS, Dr Nancy Reich Marshall, said: “This year the prestigious Milstein Award is presented to two scientists who have made major advances in understanding how our bodies recognise and respond to invasion by pathogens, and how this response can go wrong. The discoveries of Dr Kanneganti and Professor O’Neill are of profound clinical benefit to the treatment of major diseases in both immunity and cancer.”
The 30th Milstein Award ceremony will be held at Cytokines 2018, the 6th Annual Meeting of the International Cytokine and Interferon Society (ICIS) in Boston in October. The award recognises achievements by biomedical research scientists who have made outstanding contributions to cytokine and interferon research in a basic or applied field.
Interferons and cytokines are involved in all biological processes and play a critical role in the development and progression of many diseases including cancer, viral diseases, and autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus.
For more information about the Milstein Awards, the ICIS, and/or Cytokines 2018, see here.