Ravinder Maini
Sir Ravinder Maini FMedSci FRS
Ravinder Maini is a rheumatologist whose research career has made a major contribution to improving quality of life for people living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Ravinder was one half of a scientific partnership that developed a biological therapy to combat inflammation and destruction of tissues in this debilitating disease.
In the late 1980s, Ravinder and his colleague Marc Feldman began to investigate the underlying biology of RA, an autoimmune disease. They found that affected tissues harboured raised levels of an immune messenger molecular, the cytokine TNF-alpha. Normally protective, TNF- alpha was shown to be the major culprit of inflammation and tissue damage.
Together they proved that treatment with an antibody to TNF-alpha was remarkably effective at blocking the disease process and combating symptoms. Anti-TNF is now a vital component of modern therapies for RA. Furthermore, their pioneering work sparked a new branch of medicine and anti-cytokine therapies have been developed for other autoimmune conditions.
Microbiology, immunology and developmental biology
Cellular and humoral immunology
Health and human sciences
Medicine, clinical studies
Crafoord Prize
In the field of polyarthritis for definition of TNF-alpha.