Professor of medicine earns 'Colorado Nobel'

Dinarello

Charles Dinarello, a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado Denver, recently was awarded the Bonfils-Staton Award, also known as the Colorado Nobel Prize.

Dinarello is considered one of the founding fathers of cytokines, which are signalers secreted by certain immune system cells and play a role in inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

This year, Dinarello also was awarded the 2010 Ehrlich Prize, one of the most prestigious international prizes awarded in recognition of achievements in immunology, cancer research, microbiology and chemotherapy. Dinarello received the honor for his contributions in the field of cytokines.

In 2009, Dinarello was jointly awarded the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research for his work in cytokine research. The $500,000 Albany Prize is the United States' largest prize in medicine. Dinarello also was jointly awarded the $500,000 Craford Prize in Polyarthritis by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, presented to him by the King of Sweden. Dinarello donated the prize money to the Interleukin Foundation, which he founded to help fund biomedical research.

Dinarello received his medical degree from Yale and was a professor of medicine at Tufts University. He has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.