Leading migraine researcher supported by the NIH wins The Brain Prize 2021

WHAT:
The Brain Prize has been awarded to Michael A. Moskowitz, M.D., a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, who also is supported by an NIH grant. The Brain Prize is “the world’s most prestigious award for brain research” and is awarded by the Lundbeck Foundation, Denmark. Dr. Moskowitz will receive the prize along with three other scientists for their pathbreaking contributions that led to novel migraine therapies.

The Lundbeck Foundation said, “Moskowitz showed in experimental models that a migraine attack is triggered when trigeminal nerve fibres release neuropeptides that lead to dilated (opened up) blood vessels of the meninges, inflammation, and pain…. He was the first to propose that blocking the action of released neuropeptides could be a new approach to treating migraine.”

Dr. Moskowitz has received support since 1985 from the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

The other recipients of The Brain Prize 2021 are Lars Edvinsson, M.D., Ph.D., professor of internal medicine at Lund University, Sweden; Peter Goadsby, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc. director of the NIHR-Wellcome Trust King’s clinical research facility at King’s College London, UK, and professor of neurology, University of California, Los Angeles; and Jes Olesen, M.D. clinical professor in the department of clinical neurology, Rigshospitalet, Denmark.

For more on the Brain Prize recipients pioneering work on migraine visit the Lundbeck Foundation site: http://www.lundbeckfonden.com/en

WHO:
Walter J. Koroshetz, M.D., Director, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

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NINDS is the nation’s leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system. The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.