DETROIT – Michael Chopp, Ph.D., scientific director of the Henry Ford Neuroscience Institute at Henry Ford Hospital, won the 2014 Abraham White Distinguished Science Award for his discovery of the role of a protein in the treatment of brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases.
The award, given by George Washington University, honors an individual for his or her contributions to science and medicine.
Dr. Chopp is being honored for developing a new pharmacological agent that is also naturally produced in the body called Thymosin beta-4. Thus far, results have shown that Thymosin beta-4 is highly effective for the treatment of neurological diseases.
Studies from Dr. Chopp and his colleagues have shown that Thymosin beta-4 improves neurological function after stroke, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis and diabetic peripheral neuropathy in adult rats; this improvement in neurological function derives, at least in part, by increasing the formation of protective myelin around nerve fibers in the central and peripheral nervous systems.
Dr. Chopp will receive the award in October in Rome, Italy, where he also will present a keynote address.
Previous recipients of this award include more than 10 Nobel laureates and other distinguished scientists.
Dr. Chopp joined Henry Ford in 1983. He was appointed vice-chairman for Research in the Department of Neurology in 1991, scientific director of the Henry Ford Neuroscience Institute in 1999, and he is the Zoltan J. Kovacs Chair in Neuroscience Research. Dr. Chopp is also a distinguished professor of Physics at Oakland University.
Dr. Chopp has nearly 600 peer-reviewed publications and has given roughly 400 plenary lectures and invited presentations. He has chaired National Institutes of Health study sections and has often served as a consultant to the NIH.