Michael Moskowitz Receives Lundbeck Brain Prize for Work on Migraine

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Michael Moskowitz, MD, a physician investigator in the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Radiology and professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, has been awarded the 2021 Lundbeck Brain Prize, the largest and most prestigious prize devoted to the neurosciences. He received the prize alongside three colleagues for their contributions in exploring the causes and treatment of migraine.

Dr. Moskowitz has worked on the cutting edge of migraine research for more than four decades. His list of accomplishments in the field reads like a history of firsts. He and his laboratory discovered the sensory innervation to the Circle of Willis and the triggering of the trigeminovascular innervation by intense neuronal and glial activity, for example, and were the first to suggest new strategies for prophylaxis and treatment. Together, these and many other contributions paved the way for the modern era of migraine therapeutics.

With the Lundbeck Brain Prize, Dr. Moskowitz and his colleagues, Professors Lars Edvinsson, Peter Goadsby, and Jes Olesen, are recognized for the broad impact of their work in the treatment of migraine. Richard Morris, Chairman of the Brain Prize Selection Committee explained:

"Migraine is one of the most common and disabling neurological conditions affecting humans, and the work of the four winners contributed to the clinically effective classification of the disorder and then unraveling the key mechanisms to its understanding, which have led on to a novel therapy and opened possibilities for future ones."

In accepting the prize, Dr. Moskowitz recalled the decades of work leading to these critical advances. Watch his fascinating comments in the video above.

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