Three Scientists to Receive Prestigious Novartis Prizes for Immunology at 15th International Congress of Immunology

Novartis International AG / Three Scientists to Receive Prestigious Novartis Prizes for Immunology at 15th International Congress of Immunology . Processed and transmitted by Thomson Reuters ONE. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

• The Basic Immunology Prize is awarded to Drs. Tim R. Mossman and Robert L. Coffman for their work in defining subsets of T helper cells that advanced the understanding of infectious, autoimmune and allergic diseases.

The Clinical Immunology Prize is awarded to Dr. James Allison for his work in understanding how cancers evade the immune system and developing therapies to help enhance the body's immune response to cancers.

Basel, June 17, 2013 - The Novartis Prizes for Immunology are awarded to three scientists for their groundbreaking research into the biology of immune system T cells that advanced the prevention and treatment of a variety of diseases. The Prize ceremony will take place at the 15^th International Congress of Immunology in Milan, Italy on August 23, 2013.

The Novartis Prize for Basic Immunology 2013 is shared by Tim R. Mossman, Ph.D., Director of the Human Immunology Center at the University of Rochester and Robert L. Coffman, Ph.D., Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer at Dynavax.

While working together in the 1980s at DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto, CA, they determined the distinct functions of two T-helper cell subsets - with Th1 playing a major role in cellular immunity critical for resistance to infections, whereas Th2 cells can induce allergic diseases. They also found that dysregulation of Th1 and Th2 cell functions was implicated in many immunological diseases.

"The fundamental discovery by Drs. Mossman and Coffman of the specific types of T cells that helped either cellular or humoral (antibody-mediated) immunity revolutionized our understanding of how the immune system works, and led to major advances in designing therapies for infectious, inflammatory and allergic diseases and in vaccine design," said Dhaval Patel, Head, NIBR Europe and Global Head of Autoimmunity, Transplantation and Immunology.

The Novartis Prize for Clinical Immunology 2013 is awarded to James Allison, Ph.D., Chair of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Immunology, for research that is thwarting cancer's ability to evade attack by the immune system.

In the 1990s his study in mice demonstrated that CTLA-4, a molecule expressed on T cells, blocks the body's natural immune response. An antibody he developed against CTLA-4 inhibits tumor growth in mice, and has evolved into Ipilimumab, a successful treatment for advanced-stage melanoma in humans.