09/05/2014
Since 1972, the award recognizes outstanding research and innovation achievements, aiming to promote clinical, therapeutic and experimental research in this field. The award was presented by the Lord Mayor of Wiesbaden, Mr. Sven Gerich, and Head of City Council, Mr. Wolfgang Nickel, in a ceremony that took place in the Kurhaus Colonnades at Wiesbaden, Germany, on Friday, May 9th, 2014.
The eleven-member Board of Trustees of the Carol Nachman Prize, composed of highly recognized international scientists, honoured Prof. Kollias for his pioneering work "in the field of pro-inflammatory messengers, so called- cytokines". As mentioned in the award text, "Prof. Kollias' studies demonstrated that Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) is a key molecule in the development of rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic inflammatory diseases. He established the genetically modified animal model for rheumatoid arthritis (a human TNF-alpha transgenic mouse), thus creating the basis for the successful introduction of effective biological therapy principles for the neutralisation of TNF for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other rheumatism-related diseases".
Prof. Kollias noted that "The impact of our research persuaded the pharmaceutical industry to re-assess the hitherto ineffective (against sepsis) anti-TNF biological therapies, and to target them towards rheumatoid arthritis. This new direction subsequently proved to be highly effective in the clinic and benefited millions of patients suffering from this debilitating disease. We are highly honoured by the Carol Nachman Board's recognition of our original contributions to the development of these therapies".
For the last 25 years of operation in Greece, the laboratory of Prof. Kollias produced high impact research that contributed to our current understanding of TNF function in chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s inflammatory bowel disease and multiple sclerosis.
View the press release in English and Greek.