Lawrence Steinman | |
---|---|
Born | Los Angeles, California |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Neurologist, neuroimmunologist and academic |
Academic background | |
Education | Bachelor of Arts in Physics Doctor of Medicine |
Alma mater | Dartmouth College Harvard Medical School |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Stanford University |
Lawrence Steinman is an American neurologist,neuroimmunologist and an academic. He is a Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences and Pediatrics at Stanford University. [1]
Steinman's research has focused on how the immune system attacks the brain,specifically in cases of multiple sclerosis (MS),motor neuron disease (ALS),and neuromyelitis optica (NMO). [2] He discovered the target for the first approved MS therapy using a monoclonal antibody and his work has elucidated how the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) triggers MS. His laboratory at Stanford published research leading to the first approved monoclonal antibody therapy for MS,Natalizumab (Tysabri),and clarified the molecular basis for how EBV triggers MS. [3] He has received awards,including the John Dystel Prize, [4] the Charcot Prize for Lifetime Achievement in MS, [5] and the Cerami Prize for creating a new field of research and contributing to disease prevention and treatment. [6] He has also twice been awarded the Senator Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award by the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke. [7]
Steinman is an elected member of the US National Academy of Sciences, [8] and the US National Academy of Medicine. [9]
Steinman was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Culver City,California. His mother,born in Brooklyn,was the daughter of immigrants from the Pale of Settlement,while his father immigrated from the Zhitomir area in Ukraine around 1921. After World War II,where his father served in combat in the Philippines,his parents settled in Los Angeles,raising their four children near his father's pharmacy,where he worked part-time during high school. Working in the neighborhood pharmacy helped spark his interest in medicine. His sister's battle with poliomyelitis in 1951 influenced his focus on inflammatory brain diseases. He gained early lab experience at the Salk Institute working alongside Jacob Bronowski,Jonas Salk,Seymour Benzer and Stephen Kuffler to research the genetic control of immune responses to viruses. [10]
Following the launch of Sputnik,the U.S. invested heavily in science education,providing Steinman with opportunities in math and physics,including a summer program at Oregon State University sponsored by the National Science Foundation. [11] He attended Dartmouth College,graduating in Physics,and then pursued his MD at Harvard Medical School. He furthered his training as a post-doctoral fellow in chemical immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. [12]
Steinman joined Stanford University Hospital as a resident in pediatric and adult neurology before joining the faculty in 1980. [13] In the biotech industry,he co-founded Neurocrine Biosciences in 1990. [14] From 2018 to 2022,he chaired the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illness for the US Veteran's Administration. His contributions include chairing the Interdepartmental Program in Immunology at Stanford for 10 years and co-founding companies,including Bayhill Therapeutics (Tolerion), [15] Nuon Therapeutics,Transparency Life Sciences, [16] Pasithea Therapeutics,and Atreca. [17] He holds several patents in immunology and therapies that target MS,Huntington's disease,ALS,and Type 1 diabetes. [18]
Steinman has focused his research on the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis and related neuroinflammatory diseases,as well as the development of antigen-specific tolerance therapies for autoimmune conditions such as type 1 diabetes and neuromyelitis optica. His laboratory also investigates the role of amyloid structures in diseases like MS,Huntington and Alzheimer. [19]
Steinman was a senior author of the 1992 Nature article that identified α4 integrin's crucial role in brain inflammation,emphasizing its role in lymphocyte homing to the MS-affected brain. [20] Using microarray analysis,he identified distinct transcriptional profiles between acute and chronic MS lesions,pinpointing key inflammatory cytokines and differentially expressed genes. [21] He continued this analysis of MS brain tissue to identify critical proteins, [22] sugars and lipids [23] [24] involved in acute and chronic pathology in MS brain. These studies on MS brain lesions identified guardian molecules that protect MS brain from injury. [25] [26] Furthermore,he was the global chief investigator on two Phase 3 clinical trials with glycoengineered monoclonal antibodies targeting B cells. [27]
Steinman has conducted various studies on immunology to develop novel therapeutic strategies. While conducting research on the roles of lipids and proteins in MS lesions,he uncovered protective fatty acids and phospholipids, [24] and highlighted αB crystallin as a prevalent transcript with potential as a therapeutic target with guardian properties. [25] His work led to several clinical trials,including an investigation into antigen-specific tolerance for MS,where an engineered DNA plasmid encoding myelin basic protein showed promising results in a phase 2 trial. [28] He also demonstrated that T-cell receptors are highly restricted in targeting specific protein segments presented by major histocompatibility complex molecules. [29] [30]
Steinman's research into the higher prevalence of autoimmune diseases in females revealed the roles of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) and sex hormones in regulating immune responses. [31] His studies on amyloid fibrils showed that fibrils,such as those derived from β-amyloid and αB crystallin,can suppress inflammation and autoimmune responses. [32]
Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM),or acute demyelinating encephalomyelitis,is a rare autoimmune disease marked by a sudden,widespread attack of inflammation in the brain and spinal cord. As well as causing the brain and spinal cord to become inflamed,ADEM also attacks the nerves of the central nervous system and damages their myelin insulation,which,as a result,destroys the white matter. The cause is often a trigger such as from viral infection or vaccinations.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease,MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to transmit signals,resulting in a range of signs and symptoms,including physical,mental,and sometimes psychiatric problems. Symptoms include double vision,vision loss,eye pain,muscle weakness,and loss of sensation or coordination. MS takes several forms,with new symptoms either occurring in isolated attacks or building up over time. In relapsing forms of MS symptoms may disappear completely between attacks,although some permanent neurological problems often remain,especially as the disease advances. In progressive forms of MS,bodily function slowly deteriorates once symptoms manifest and will steadily worsen if left untreated.
Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) are a spectrum of autoimmune diseases characterized by acute inflammation of the optic nerve and the spinal cord (myelitis). Episodes of ON and myelitis can be simultaneous or successive. A relapsing disease course is common,especially in untreated patients.
Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) is a glycoprotein believed to be important in the myelination of nerves in the central nervous system (CNS). In humans this protein is encoded by the MOG gene. It is speculated to serve as a necessary "adhesion molecule" to provide structural integrity to the myelin sheath and is known to develop late on the oligodendrocyte.
Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis,sometimes experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE),is an animal model of brain inflammation. It is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS). It is mostly used with rodents and is widely studied as an animal model of the human CNS demyelinating diseases,including multiple sclerosis (MS) and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). EAE is also the prototype for T-cell-mediated autoimmune disease in general.
A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of neurons,in the process known as neurodegeneration. Neuronal damage may also ultimately result in their death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,multiple sclerosis,Parkinson's disease,Alzheimer's disease,Huntington's disease,multiple system atrophy,tauopathies,and prion diseases. Neurodegeneration can be found in the brain at many different levels of neuronal circuitry,ranging from molecular to systemic. Because there is no known way to reverse the progressive degeneration of neurons,these diseases are considered to be incurable;however research has shown that the two major contributing factors to neurodegeneration are oxidative stress and inflammation. Biomedical research has revealed many similarities between these diseases at the subcellular level,including atypical protein assemblies and induced cell death. These similarities suggest that therapeutic advances against one neurodegenerative disease might ameliorate other diseases as well.
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the CNS in which activated immune cells invade the central nervous system and cause inflammation,neurodegeneration,and tissue damage. The underlying cause is currently unknown. Current research in neuropathology,neuroimmunology,neurobiology,and neuroimaging,together with clinical neurology,provide support for the notion that MS is not a single disease but rather a spectrum.
Multiple sclerosis and other demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) produce lesions and glial scars or scleroses. They present different shapes and histological findings according to the underlying condition that produces them.
Remyelination is the process of propagating oligodendrocyte precursor cells to form oligodendrocytes to create new myelin sheaths on demyelinated axons in the Central nervous system (CNS). This is a process naturally regulated in the body and tends to be very efficient in a healthy CNS. The process creates a thinner myelin sheath than normal,but it helps to protect the axon from further damage,from overall degeneration,and proves to increase conductance once again. The processes underlying remyelination are under investigation in the hope of finding treatments for demyelinating diseases,such as multiple sclerosis.
Inflammatory demyelinating diseases (IDDs),sometimes called Idiopathic (IIDDs) due to the unknown etiology of some of them,are a heterogenous group of demyelinating diseases - conditions that cause damage to myelin,the protective sheath of nerve fibers - that occur against the background of an acute or chronic inflammatory process. IDDs share characteristics with and are often grouped together under Multiple Sclerosis. They are sometimes considered different diseases from Multiple Sclerosis,but considered by others to form a spectrum differing only in terms of chronicity,severity,and clinical course.
Research in multiple sclerosis may find new pathways to interact with the disease,improve function,curtail attacks,or limit the progression of the underlying disease. Many treatments already in clinical trials involve drugs that are used in other diseases or medications that have not been designed specifically for multiple sclerosis. There are also trials involving the combination of drugs that are already in use for multiple sclerosis. Finally,there are also many basic investigations that try to understand the disease better and in the future may help to find new treatments.
Michael Sela was an Israeli immunologist of Polish Jewish origin. He was the W. Garfield Weston Professor of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. He was a president of the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Programmed cell death protein 1(PD-1),. PD-1 is a protein encoded in humans by the PDCD1 gene. PD-1 is a cell surface receptor on T cells and B cells that has a role in regulating the immune system's response to the cells of the human body by down-regulating the immune system and promoting self-tolerance by suppressing T cell inflammatory activity. This prevents autoimmune diseases,but it can also prevent the immune system from killing cancer cells.
Hartmut Wekerle is a German medical scientist and neurobiologist. He is an emeritus director at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology and was the head of the department of Neuroimmunology until 2012.
Protective autoimmunity is a condition in which cells of the adaptive immune system contribute to maintenance of the functional integrity of a tissue,or facilitate its repair following an insult. The term ‘protective autoimmunity’was coined by Prof. Michal Schwartz of the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel),whose pioneering studies were the first to demonstrate that autoimmune T lymphocytes can have a beneficial role in repair,following an injury to the central nervous system (CNS). Most of the studies on the phenomenon of protective autoimmunity were conducted in experimental settings of various CNS pathologies and thus reside within the scientific discipline of neuroimmunology.
Tumefactive multiple sclerosis is a condition in which the central nervous system of a person has multiple demyelinating lesions with atypical characteristics for those of standard multiple sclerosis (MS). It is called tumefactive as the lesions are "tumor-like" and they mimic tumors clinically,radiologically and sometimes pathologically.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) can be pathologically defined as the presence of distributed glial scars (scleroses) in the central nervous system that must show dissemination in time (DIT) and in space (DIS) to be considered MS lesions.
MOG antibody disease (MOGAD) or MOG antibody-associated encephalomyelitis (MOG-EM) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. Serum anti-myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibodies are present in up to half of patients with an acquired demyelinating syndrome and have been described in association with a range of phenotypic presentations,including acute disseminated encephalomyelitis,optic neuritis,transverse myelitis,and neuromyelitis optica.
Several biomarkers for diagnosis of multiple sclerosis,disease evolution and response to medication are under research. While most of them are still under research,there are some of them already well stablished:
Robyn S. Klein is an American neuroimmunologist as well as the Vice Provost and Associate Dean for Graduate Education at Washington University in St. Louis. Klein is also a professor in the Departments of Medicine,Anatomy &Neurobiology,and Pathology &Immunology. Her research explores the pathogenesis of neuroinflammation in the central nervous system by probing how immune signalling molecules regulate blood brain barrier permeability. Klein is also a fervent advocate for gender equity in STEM,publishing mechanisms to improve gender equity in speakers at conferences,participating nationally on gender equity discussion panels,and through service as the president of the Academic Women’s Network at the Washington University School of Medicine.
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