Dr. Noel Rose Receives Copernicus Medal (web article)

Noel Rose, MD, PhD, director of the Johns Hopkins Autoimmune Disease Research Center, was awarded the Nicolaus Copernicus Medal by the Polish Academy of Sciences. The award is the Academy’s highest honor. Rose, who is also professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and in the Department of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, was recognized for his discoveries on thyroiditis, which ushered in the modern investigation of autoimmune disease.

In 1956, Rose and his colleagues introduced the concept of autoimmunity as a cause of disease when they discovered that the human disease chronic (Hashimoto’s) thyroiditis could be reproduced in experimental animals by immunization with thyroglobulin, a major protein constituent of the thyroid gland. Today, more than 80 human diseases affecting every organ in the body are related to autoimmunity, including type-1 diabetes, lupus, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism.

The award will be presented to Rose at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., by Poland's ambassador to the United States.