Prof. Michal Schwartz

Professor Michal Schwartz, Israel Prize Laureate

Professor of Neuroimmunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Schwartz is the world pioneer in breaking the long-held dogma regarding the relationships between the central nervous system and the immune system. She introduced the current understanding that systemic immune cells are guardians of the brain, needed for life-long brain maintenance and
repair. Based on her comprehension of the brain-immune relationship, she proposed that senescence or exhaustion of the immune system plays a key role in brain aging, and in exacerbating Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other forms of dementia. She suggested a novel treatment for AD, currently in clinical trial, to harness the immune system to help the brain. The impact of her scientific insights is reflected in her extensive publication record in leading journals and high citation number (H factor 124, Google Scholar; more than 62,000 citations), and the number of invited lectures that she delivered. Schwartz received numerous prestigious national and international awards for her outstanding achievements. Most recently, in 2019, Schwartz received the EMET prize, one of the most prestigious Israeli awards for academic achievement, and the FENS EJN Award, 2022 for her outstanding contribution to the field of Neuroimmunology. In 2023, she was awarded the Israel Prize in life sciences, an award bestowed by the State of Israel, and regarded as the state’s highest honor. She served as elected president of the International Society of Neuroimmunology (2016-2018). Twenty of her former trainees currently hold academic faculty positions in Israel, the USA, UK, Europe and Australia. She is the scientific co-founder of a startup biopharma, ImmunoBrain, which based on her technology, is currently testing an immunotherapy in the UK, Israel and the Netherlands, with the goal of defeating Alzheimer’s disease.