The Dickson Prize in Medicine

The Dickson Prize in Medicine is awarded annually to a leading American investigator who is engaged in innovative, paradigm-shifting biomedical research. Previous winners >

Great Science

2019 Dickson Prize Goes to Ruslan Medzhitov

Prize is Pitt School of Medicine’s most prestigious annual award

Ruslan Medzhitov, PhD, is the recipient of the 2019 Dickson Prize in Medicine from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Medzhitov is one of the world’s leading immunology researchers. He is a codiscoverer of the molecular pattern recognition receptor Toll-like receptor 4 and is credited with many fundamental discoveries concerning the importance of Toll-like receptors in controlling adaptive immunity, infections, chronic inflammation, and tumor growth. Recently, his scientific focus has included immunological factors relevant to allergic reaction and closer attention to tissue biology, particularly macrophage and stromal cell communication.

Medzhitov is the Sterling Professor of Immunobiology at Yale University School of Medicine and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He has been elected to the National Academy of Science, the National Academy of Medicine, and the Russian Academy of Science and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2010, Medzhitov received the prestigious Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research for elucidating the mechanisms of innate immunity. His numerous other awards include the 2011 Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine and the Vilcek Foundation, Lurie, and Else Kröner Fresenius Stiftung Prizes, all in 2013.

Medzhitov will deliver the Dickson Prize in Medicine Lecture on Thursday, October 17, as the opening plenary session for Pitt’s annual celebration of science and research. To learn more, visit www.science2019.pitt.edu.