Ruslan Medzhitov (born March 12, 1966) is a professor of immunobiology and dermatology at the

Yale School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the medical school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. It is the sixth-oldest m ...

, and an investigator at the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

. His research focuses on the analysis of the innate immune system, inflammatory response, innate control of the adaptive immunity, and host-pathogen interactions. In 2010, he was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

, and in 2017 he was named

Sterling Professor Sterling Professor, the highest academic rank at Yale University, is awarded to a Academic tenure in North America, tenured faculty member considered the best in their field. It is akin to the rank of distinguished professor at other universities. ...

Biography

Ruslan Medzhitov was born in 1966 in

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

. He earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

at Tashkent State University before going on to pursue a PhD in biochemistry at

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

. In 1992 he read an article by Charles Janeway about a hypothetical flip-flop triggered

innate immunity The innate immune system or nonspecific immune system is one of the two main immunity strategies in vertebrates (the other being the adaptive immune system). The innate immune system is an alternate defense strategy and is the dominant immune s ...

. Before coming to Yale, he was a fellow in the laboratory of

Russell Doolittle Russell F. Doolittle (January 10, 1931 – October 11, 2019) was an American biochemist who taught at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Described as a "world-renowned evolutionary biologist", Doolittle's research primarily focuse ...

at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

. He did his post-doctoral training with Janeway at Yale University School of Medicine from 1994 to 1999. In 1997, Medzhitov and Janeway proved that humans have a

Toll-like receptor Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are a class of proteins that play a key role in the innate immune system. They are single-pass membrane protein, single-spanning receptor (biochemistry), receptors usually expressed on sentinel cells such as macrophages ...

(later named TLR4 ), which activates genes necessary for the

immune response An immune response is a physiological reaction which occurs within an organism in the context of inflammation for the purpose of defending against exogenous factors. These include a wide variety of different toxins, viruses, intra- and extracellula ...

. In 2000, Medzhitov was selected as a Searle Scholar. On April 27, 2010, he was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences and became one of the youngest academicians. In 2011, the Russian edition of ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' published a list of 50 Russians who “conquered the world”. It includes scientists, businessmen, cultural and sports figures who have integrated into the world community and have achieved success outside of Russia. Medzhitov was included in this Forbes list of 10 famous scientists of Russian origin. On May 15, 2012, Medzhitov was awarded a diploma and a medal of the Honorary Professor at

. Currently, he serves as a

Sterling professor Sterling Professor, the highest academic rank at Yale University, is awarded to a Academic tenure in North America, tenured faculty member considered the best in their field. It is akin to the rank of distinguished professor at other universities. ...

at the Yale University School of Medicine.

Awards

He has received the William Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology from the Cancer Research Institute, a Master of Arts Privatum at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, the Emil von Behring Award, AAI-BD Biosciences Investigator Award, a doctorate ''honoris Causa'' at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

, the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists from the New York Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Howard Taylor Ricketts Award from the University of Chicago, the Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research in 2010, and the Dickson Prize in 2019. In recognition of his prolific contributions to the field of immunological research, he was elected to the

and in 2011 he was a co-recipient of the Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine. In 2013, Medzhitov received the Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science.

Personal life

In 2007, Medzhitov married Akiko Iwasaki, a professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at

. They have two daughters.

References

External links

HHMI Scientist Bio: Ruslan MedzhitovBio at Yale University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medzhitov, Ruslan 1966 births Living people Yale School of Medicine faculty Yale Sterling Professors Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Howard Hughes Medical Investigators Scientists from Tashkent Members of the National Academy of Medicine Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences