Recipients Lee C. Howley Sr. Prize for Arthritis Researchers
The Arthritis Foundation extends its gratitude to the Howley family on behalf of the estimated 70 million Americans who have arthritis for making the Lee C. Howley Sr. Prize for Research in Arthritis possible. The recognition that this program offers for excellence in arthritis research will ensure that the search will continue for cures to the more than 100 forms of arthritis and the rheumatic diseases. The Howley family's expression of commitment offers hope that one day the problems of arthritis will be solved.
Past recipients of this award are:
2007 David Wofsy, MD, of the University of California at San Francisco, for initiating the use of so called biologic agents for the treatment of rheumatic disease and for establishing a large clinical trial network for evaluating the use of these agents in humans with lupus. His more recent studies led to the development of clinical applications of a new biological agent that inhibits T cells. One such medication known as aratacept is now in use for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Gary Koretzky, MD, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania, for his studies of the molecules that white blood cells use to control their function. One of these molecules is known as SLP-76. Koretzky’s studies demonstrated how signals delivered by extra-cellular molecules such as antigens can be linked to the control of protein molecules inside cells.
2006 Gary Firestein, MD, of the University of California, San Diego. His scientific contributions have moved the study of RA from primitive analysis of peripheral blood cells to a sophisticated assay of patterns of gene expression which provide a much more powerful and informed perspective.
2005 Chella David, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic, for his studies, first on genetic fine structure controlling susceptibility to collagen-induced arthritis and then on the functional HLA Class II Transgenic Mice, which enabled his laboratory and those of others to study human disease with humanized models.
2004 David Felson, MD, MPH, of Boston University, for his contributions in the fields of clinical epidemiology and clinical trials design, and Jeffrey Ravetch, MD, of Rockefeller University, for his contributions toward understanding the role of Fc receptors, immune mediated inflammation and the implications for therapeutic interventions
2003 David V. Goeddel, PhD, of Tularik Inc., in recognition of his important contributions to the biology of TNF, which were pivotal in the development of TNF inhibitors.
2002 Betty Diamond, MD, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, for her work to elucidate the cause of lupus and to understand how the various forms of tissue injury are induced in patients with this disorder. Peter Lipsky, MD, of the National Institutes of Health. Taking a leadership role in the development of new biologic agents for the treatment of RA, Dr. Lipsky played a key role in investigations of anti-TNF or infliximab.
2001 David S. Pisetsky, MD, PhD, of Duke University, for his work on the immune properties of DNA. This work in the area of SLE has revolutionized the conceptualization of the role of DNA in normal and aberrant immunity and has provided a new paradigm of autoimmunity.
2000 Daniel Kastner, MD, PhD, of the National Institutes of Health, for his work on genetic mapping and positional cloning. He successfully organized and led an international consortium of groups that were in search of the gene for familial Mediterranean fever, a form of arthritis particularly common in Mediterranean populations.
1999 Morris Reichlin, MD, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, for his work to determine the role of specific immunological factors in the pathogenesis of SLE. His most recent work on the anti-P system is potentially important in terms of access of circulating antibodies to internal cellular compartments and their ability to cause disease.
1998 Matthew H. Liang, MD, MPH, of the Brigham & Women’s Hospital, for his studies of the social and economic consequences of arthritis, the roles of medical, surgical and physical therapy on long‑term outcome of these diseases and how patients and their families learn coping skills; and William P. Arend, MD, of the University of Colorado, for his pioneering research, which has provided an increased understanding of natural mechanisms to counter inflammation, and has led to entirely new approaches to the treatment of many types of arthritis.
1997 Arthur Weiss, MD, PhD, University of California, San Francisco, discovered key elements that activate white blood cells, called T cells, in the inflamed tissues in joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.
1996 Michael B. Brenner, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, for his seminal discoveries of how lymphocytes recognize foreign molecules that can serve as triggers for various forms of arthritis and other inflammatory diseases, and Laurie H. Glimcher, MD, Harvard School of Public Health, for her pioneering work on deciphering the molecular controls that determine the chemicals, termed cytokines, that lymphocytes produce in fighting infections and in causing inflammation in arthritis.
1995 Barton F. Haynes, MD, Duke University, for his work on understanding the role of retroviruses and biologically active molecules in the pathogenesis of inflammatory synovitis.
1994 K. Frank Austen, MD, Harvard Medical School, for his outstanding contributions to understanding of the molecular and cellular biology of the inflammatory system, which is involved in many types of arthritis. Dr. Austen has been instrumental in identification of a number of chemicals called leukotrienes, which are involved, in the inflammatory response.
1993 Allen C. Steere, MD, New England Medical Center. Dr. Steere and his colleagues discovered Lyme disease, described its numerous clinical manifestations, and helped forge a link between the disease and the tick-borne microorganism, Borrelia burgdorferi.
1992 Darwin J. Prockop, MD, PhD, Thomas Jefferson Medical College, for his pivotal findings on how collagen is made. They are the basis for his hypothesis that the premature degeneration of collagen tissue in man can be the result of genetic defects in the collagen molecule itself.
1991 John P. Atkinson, MD, Washington University School of Medicine, and Douglas T. Fearon, MD, Johns Hopkins University, used the latest techniques in molecular biology to isolate the genes that make both complement proteins and the cell proteins that interact with complement.
1990 Robert J. Winchester, MD, Columbia University, for his pioneering research that identified the basis for a person's genetic predisposition to develop rheumatoid arthritis.
1989 Eng M. Tan, MD, Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, for his lifelong study to identify autoantibodies in those arthritis diseases falling into the category of autoimmunity, including systemic lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, and Sjögren's syndrome.
1988 Mart Mannik, MD, University of Washington, for his contributions to understanding of rheumatoid arthritis, especially to understanding the structure of antibody molecules, including the unique characteristics of antibody idiotypes.
1987 Dennis A. Carson, MD, Scripps Clinic, for his work in purine metabolism in the immune system and the nature of idiotypic specificities in rheumatoid factors.
1986 Hugh O. McDevitt, MD, Stanford University, for his contributions to the understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the genetic control of immune responsiveness.
1985 C. William Castor, MD, University of Michigan, for his work in the definition, function and biological significance of connective tissue activation and the connective tissue activating peptides.
1984 Joan A. Steitz, PhD, Michael Lerner, MD, PhD, and John A. Hardin, MD, Yale University, for their work in the identification of prominent autoantigens in systemic lupus erythematosus.
