ESTABLISHED IN 2025
The Weiner Prize in Neuroimmunology
The Weiner Prize is given to a scientist or physician who has made a seminal contribution to the field of neuroimmunology that encompasses the interaction between the immune system and the nervous system.
A contribution may be basic or clinical. The award includes a $10,000 prize, and the recipient delivers an invited lecture at Harvard Medical School. The award will be given annually.
The Weiner Prize was established in honor of Howard L. Weiner by his trainees and colleagues for his lifetime contributions to the field of neuroimmunology. Howard L. Weiner is the Robert L. Kroc Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, founder of the Brigham MS Center, and Co-Director of the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He has studied both the basic and clinical aspects of neuroimmunology over the past 50 years and has trained two generations of scientists and clinicians in the field. He has pioneered immunotherapy in MS, beginning with a seminal 1983 paper demonstrating that cyclophosphamide altered the course of MS and was the first to treat MS patients with monoclonal antibodies. He has pioneered the study of the mucosal immune system, the microbiome, and how they regulate neuroimmune interactions and the development of neurologic diseases. He identified the Th3 type regulatory T cell. His discoveries in basic neuroimmunology have helped shape the field and have been translated to human disease.
Most recently, he has shown that nasal anti-CD3 Mab induces regulatory T cells that treat multiple animal models of disease and is currently in clinical trials in MS, AD, ALS, and MSA. He established the Comprehensive Longitudinal Investigation of Multiple Sclerosis (CLIMB) observational cohort of 2300 MS patients at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, now in its 25th year to deeply phenotype MS patients and to develop precision medicine for MS. Harvard Medical School honored him with the establishment of the Howard L. Weiner Professorship and two additional endowed chairs were established in his name at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Dr. Weiner is a recipient of the John Dystel Prize for MS Research, the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award for investigating the innate immune system in Alzheimer’s disease, and the Giants of MS award for his MS research.
He is the author of the books Curing MS, The Brain Under Siege and Neurology for the House Officer. He wrote and directed the award-winning documentary What is Life? The Movie and the award-winning film Abe & Phil’s Last Poker Game starring Martin Landau and Paul Sorvino.
Howard L Weiner, MD