Top Immunology Honor Goes to Feinstein Institute's Kevin Tracey

MANHASSET, N.Y., Oct. 7, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The International Endotoxin and Innate Immunity Society (IEIIS) has given its highest honor, the Frederik B. BangAward, to Kevin J. Tracey, MD, CEO and president of The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research for his work on controlling inflammation in treating disease.

In awarding Dr. Tracey, the Bang Award Committee recognized his "substantial body of significant research to the endotoxin and innate immunity fields."

Specifically, Dr. Tracey's work has led to a deeper understanding of the body's immunological responses, including the discovery of the inflammatory reflex, a communication circuit between the brain and the vagus nerve that controls and regulates inflammation in the body. These discoveries have been credited with laying the foundation for bioelectronic medicine, an emerging new field of medicine that has demonstrated success in treating acute and chronic diseases where inflammation plays a critical role, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, lupus, hemorrhaging, various cancers, and many others. 

"Dr. Tracey's longstanding commitment to understanding the immune system and his breakthrough findings concerning the inflammatory reflex have had an ongoing impact on fields ranging from immunology to neuroscience,"said Jack Levin, MD, chairman of the Bang Award Committee. "Dr. Tracey joins an elite group of past Bang Award recipients," added Dr. Levin, "and we look forward to followinghis continuing work."

"It's a great honor to receive the Bang Award," said Dr. Tracey. "It recognizes many years of research leading to the development of Bioelectronic Medicine as a new means of addressing the critical role inflammation plays in disease. This work has not been done in isolation, however. None of it, including this honor, would be possible without the careful and dedicated research of my outstanding colleagues at the Feinstein Institute and other centers of research and learning in bioelectronic medicine."

About the Frederik B. Bang Award
First presented in 1985, the Frederik B. Bang Award was established by the Stanley Watson Foundation to recognize a substantial body of significant research accomplishment by an outstanding senior investigator whose contributions to the endotoxin field extend over many years. It honors the memory of Frederick B. Bang (1916-1981), a biomedical investigator at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who investigated a variety of defense mechanisms. He was especially insightful in the use of marine organisms to study biological phenomena which had clinical significance.

About The Feinstein Institute
The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research is the research arm of Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York. Home to 50 research laboratories and to clinical research throughout dozens of hospitals and outpatient facilities, the 2,000 researchers and staff of the Feinstein are making breakthroughs in molecular medicine, genetics, oncology, brain research, mental health, autoimmunity, and bioelectronic medicine – a new field of science that has the potential to revolutionize medicine. For more information about how we empower imagination and pioneer discovery, visit FeinsteinInstitute.org.

SOURCE Northwell Health