Ruslan Medzhitov, PhD, Sterling Professor of Immunobiology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, has been chosen to receive the 2024 Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko Medal, awarded by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The medal is given every two years for outstanding research in the medical sciences.
As noted in the NAS announcement, “Medzhitov’s pioneering contributions have advanced our understanding of the mechanisms of innate immunity, which provides immediate defense against infection.
“His research incorporates insights from metabolism, neuroscience, and the microbiota to examine innate immunity, including molecular mechanisms of innate immune recognition, control of adaptive immune responses by innate immune recognition, and mechanisms of autoimmunity and allergy. His work has elucidated the fundamental link between innate immune system signaling and the induction of adaptive immune responses and describes the key molecular pieces and cell biology involved in the process.
“Medzhitov’s many fundamental discoveries concerning the importance of Toll-like receptors in controlling adaptive immunity, infections, chronic inflammation, and tumor growth have had enormous impact in multiple areas of medicine, including inflammatory and metabolic diseases, infectious disease and vaccine design, cancer, and allergic disease.”
The Kovalenko Fund was established by a gift in 1949 to NAS by Michael S. Kovalenko in memory of his wife, Jessie Stevenson Kovalenko. Over seven decades, the medal has been awarded to 28 outstanding scientists.