Peaks

Charles Dinarello Awarded the 2020 Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science 

Dinarello shared the prize with Sir Marc Feldmann, PhD, senior research fellow at Somerville College at University of Oxford, and Tadamitsu Kishimoto, MD, PhD, professor at Osaka University’s Immunology Frontier Research Center.

“Development of biologic drugs, or biologics, has revolutionized the treatment of diseases,” the Tang Prize Foundation said in its announcement of the award in June. “This year, the Tang Prize Foundation recognizes the development of biologics targeting three proteins in our immune system called cytokines.”

Interleukin (IL-1) was the first cytokine to be identified and shown to be a central mediator of inflammation. Dinarello, professor of medicine and immunology, is considered one of the founding fathers of cytokines and his pioneering work set the foundation for establishing IL-1 as a potent mediator of fever and inflammatory diseases, which led to the development of therapeutics for this important cytokine. IL-1 has profound multi-organ, multi-tissue, and multi-cellular impact on cell signaling.