NINDS’s Reich Wins Barancik Prize
Dr. Daniel Reich, chief of the translational neuroradiology section in the NINDS Division of Neuroimmunology and Neurovirology, recently won the 2016 Barancik Prize for Innovation in Multiple Sclerosis Research.
The prize recognizes an exceptional scientist or a team of scientists whose MS research has demonstrated outstanding innovation and originality. The award further honors research that has the potential to impact or lead to the treatment and cure for MS and scientific accomplishments that merit recognition as a future leader in MS research.
Reich was honored for his innovative ways of looking at the brain to advance knowledge of MS. In his research, he uses advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques to understand the origins of disability in MS and related disorders.
With his team, he has developed and evaluated an imaging approach that detects inflammation of the meninges (the tissue layer that surrounds the brain). Reich has made several important observations, including showing three major patterns of acute MS lesion evolution, which can be used to assess the ultimate degree of tissue damage or recovery. This approach is now being considered for clinical trials of myelin repair therapies in MS.
“I feel especially proud that the prize committee recognized the novelty of our work linking MRI to pathology in MS,” Reich said.
Reich earned his doctorate in visual neurophysiology from the Rockefeller University in 2000 and his medical degree from Cornell University in 2002. He completed residencies in neurology and diagnostic radiology and a clinical fellowship in neuroradiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Before coming to NIH, Reich performed postdoctoral research at Hopkins, during which he applied MRI—particularly diffusion-weighted imaging—to study MS.
The international Barancik Prize is made possible by the Charles and Margery Barancik SO Foundation and is administered through the National MS Society. Reich received the prize at a special ceremony recently in Washington, D.C.—Shannon E. Garnett