Michal Schwartz

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 lifelong 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 126, Google Scholar; more than 63,000 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). Tweny of her former trainees currently hold academic faculty positions in Israel, the USA, UK, Europe and Australia. She is the scientific cofounder of the biopharmaceutical company ImmunoBrain, which is built on her technology. The company recently completed a Phase 1b clinical trial in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) with encouraging results, testing the immunotherapy she developed across sites in the UK, Israel, and the Netherlands.