Apr 28, 2009
Dr. David Miller, Pioneer in MS Imaging, Awarded 2009 John Dystel Prize
Professor David H. Miller, MD, FRCP, has been chosen by a committee of his peers to receive the National MS Society/American Academy of Neurology’s 2009 John Dystel Prize for Multiple Sclerosis Research. Dr. Miller (Institute of Neurology, University College London) is being honored for revolutionizing what we know about MS and its treatment through his pioneering research using imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The $15,000 prize is being presented today at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Seattle.
“Much of our understanding of MS through the use of MRI has its roots in David's laboratory,” said MS expert Henry McFarland, MD, Chief of the Neuroimmunology Branch at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, who co-nominated Dr. Miller for the Award along with Omar Khan, MD, Director of the Wayne State University MS Clinical Research Center & Image Analysis Laboratory. Dr. Khan added, “To state that Professor Miller is a giant in the field of MS imaging is an understatement. His career has inspired me on more occasions than I can count.”
Dr. Miller’s Contributions: Dr. Miller’s research on the imaging of MS substantially changed how we think about MS, and how we study its course. He is responsible for the application of imaging to the study of the optic nerve – which many researchers believe to be the best target for studying therapies designed to enhance neuroprotection. He began these studies early in his career, with a published study focusing on areas of tissue damage in the optic nerve of people with MS (Lancet 1986;1:1492).
Dr. Miller introduced the concept of looking at injury in otherwise normal-appearing brain areas (Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 1989; 7: 331-6). This study has led to seminal work exploring disability and tissue injury that would be unexplained by the damage that is visible on MRI scans. He also is a pioneer in the use of serial imaging studies – in which people with MS undergo MRI scans at various points in the disease course. In one of these efforts, his team followed people presenting with clinically isolated syndrome (a first demyelinating event suggestive of MS) for five years to determine how well their first MRI scan could predict future outcomes. Abnormalities on MRI served as powerful predictors of the development of definite MS (Brain 1993;116:135-146).
Dr. Miller and his research group led the imaging efforts in many clinical trials, applying careful analysis and new imaging techniques to the study of experimental therapies. In one such study – the initial phase II clinical trial of natalizumab – they demonstrated the drug’s effects on new disease activity on MRI scans, providing the basis for larger studies which ultimately led to the drug’s approval to treat people with MS (New England Journal of Medicine 2003;348:15-23).
Sharing Knowledge: Dr. Miller has shared his knowledge with the international MS community, not only as a mentor and teacher, but also as a prolific writer and collaborator. He has authored four textbooks and 450 original peer-reviewed papers, and has served on the editorial boards of Brain and Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, and was co-chief editor of the Journal of Neurology. He has been Secretary of the Association of British Neurologists and of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. He co-chaired an international workshop exploring the use of MRI in clinical trials in MS, and the National MS Society’s Task Force on Differential Diagnosis of MS. He is a central investigator in the European MS imaging community, MAGNIMS and has served on advisory boards for the MS International Federation and the Sylvia Lawry Centre for MS Research. Dr. Miller is a council member of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in MS. He serves as an advisor to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Dr. Miller has developed a team of MRI physicists, neuroradiologists, neuropathologists, neuro-ophthalmologists and neurologists. He has mentored and trained investigators who are now doing their part to move us closer to a world free of MS. This long list includes Drs. Massimo Filippi, Peter Brex, Simon Hickman, Catherine Dalton, Klaus Schmierer and Declan Chard.
The National MS Society and the Academy are pleased to honor Dr. David Miller with the 2009 John Dystel Prize for MS Research, in recognition of major achievements in MS imaging.
The Prize: The $15,000 Dystel Prize is given jointly by the National MS Society and the
American Academy of Neurology, and is funded through the Society’s John Dystel Multiple Sclerosis Research Fund. Society Honorary Life National Board of Directors member Oscar Dystel and his late wife Marion established this fund in 1994 in honor of their son John Jay Dystel, an attorney whose promising career was cut short by progressive disability from MS. (John died of complications of the disease in June 2003.) Previous winners of the Prize are Drs. Donald Paty (1995), Cedric Raine (1996), John Kurtzke (1997), Henry McFarland (1998), W. Ian McDonald (1999), Kenneth Johnson (2000), John Prineas (2001), Stephen Waxman (2002), Bruce Trapp (2003), Lawrence Steinman (2004), Jack Antel (2005), William Sibley (2006), Howard Weiner (2007) and Stephen Hauser (2008). Read about other Dystel Prize winners.
Biographical Sketch: Professor Miller began his neurology training at Wellington Hospital in New Zealand. He then joined the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and Institute of Neurology at Queen Square in London, studying with Professor Ian McDonald (a previous winner of the Dystel Prize and founder of the Institute’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging [NMR] Research Unit, one of the first such imaging units dedicated to the study of MS and supported by the MS Society of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). Dr. Miller is now Professor of Clinical Neurology and lead investigator in the NMR Research Unit at University College London’s Institute of Neurology. He also is Consultant Neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.