Leading migraine researcher supported by the NIH wins The Brain Prize 2021

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Picture of Michael A. Moskowitz, winner of Brain Prize.
Michael A. Moskowitz, M.D. NIH-supported migraine researcher and winner of The Brian Prize 2021. Courtesy of the Lundbeck Foundation, Denmark.

The Brain Prize has been awarded to Michael A. Moskowitz, M.D., a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, who also is supported by an NIH grant. The Brain Prize is “the world’s most prestigious award for brain research” and is awarded by the Lundbeck Foundation, Denmark. Dr. Moskowitz will receive the prize along with three other scientists for their pathbreaking contributions that led to novel migraine therapies.

The Lundbeck Foundation said, “Moskowitz showed in experimental models that a migraine attack is triggered when trigeminal nerve fibres release neuropeptides that lead to dilated (opened up) blood vessels of the meninges, inflammation, and pain…. He was the first to propose that blocking the action of released neuropeptides could be a new approach to treating migraine.”

Dr. Moskowitz has received support since 1985 from the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

The other recipients of The Brain Prize 2021 are Lars Edvinsson, M.D., Ph.D., professor of internal medicine at Lund University, Sweden; Peter Goadsby, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc. director of the NIHR-Wellcome Trust King’s clinical research facility at King’s College London, UK, and professor of neurology, University of California, Los Angeles; and Jes Olesen, M.D. clinical professor in the department of clinical neurology, Rigshospitalet, Denmark.

For more on the Brain Prize recipients pioneering work on migraine visit the Lundbeck Foundation website.