Ulrich Dirnagl receives the 2016 Thomas Willis Lecture Award
19.02.2016
The prestigious Thomas Willis Lecture Award of the American Stroke Association recognizes a senior investigator who has made major contributions to the understanding of stroke over a sustained period.
Professor Ulrich Dirnagl delivered the Thomas Willis Lecture “Why Translational Stroke Research Cannot Succeed without Failure” on Friday, Feb. 19, during the International Stroke Conference 2016 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The Willis Award recognizes an American Heart Association Stroke Council Fellow who has “actively engaged in and has made significant contributions to basic science research (animal/cell models) in stroke.”
At the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Professor Dirnagl is a member of the Cluster of Excellence Neurocure and chief executive director of the Center for Stroke Research Berlin.
Dirnagl’s research is focused on stroke, cerebral blood flow regulation and brain imaging. He and colleagues have explored ways by which restricted blood flow to the brain leads to cell death, and have developed novel methods to intercept mechanisms of damage in acute brain damage and foster lesion regeneration and repair.
Dirnagl is particularly interested in how the brain protects itself in a process called endogenous neuroprotection, how it interacts with other systems of the body after it has been injured, and in the mechanisms underlying functional brain imaging. He and his team use techniques that allow non-invasive imaging of brain biochemistry and molecular signaling with the help of optical, MR and nuclear medicine approaches.
Named after pioneer physician Thomas Willis (1621-1675), the award recognizes a senior investigator who has made major contributions to the understanding of stroke over a sustained period. Willis is a co-founder of modern neurosciences and credited with coining the term “neurology”.
Source: Ulrich Dirnagl/Charité Pressestelle