Health & Fitness
San Francisco Researcher Honored With Breakthrough Prize
"This work opens the possibility...for the development of a vaccine...that could effectively prevent MS (multiple sclerosis) altogether."
SAN FRANCISCO — A researcher at the University of California, San Francisco was honored Saturday for transforming the understanding and treatment of multiple sclerosis, the university said.
Dr. Stephen Hauser, a UCSF professor of neurology and director of the Weill Institute for Neurosciences, shared the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences with Harvard University's Dr. Alberto Ascherio for their findings on the immune disease that attacks the insulating protein around nerve fibers.
The Breakthrough Prize was created by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Julia and Yuri Milner, and Anne Wojcicki as the "Oscars of science," UCSF said. Prizes of $3 million are given in life sciences, fundamental physics and mathematics.
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"Hauser overturned the scientific consensus on the mechanism of MS, identifying the immune system's B cells as the primary driver of damage to nerve cells," according to a Breakthrough Prize press release. "He was also instrumental in the development and testing of B cell-depleting therapies, which have revolutionized modern treatment of the disease."
Ascherio discovered that contracting the Epstein-Barr virus increases the risk of developing MS by a factor of 32.
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"This work opens the possibility of treating MS with antiviral drugs, and for the development of a vaccine for EBV that could effectively prevent MS altogether," the prize organization said.
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