Charles A. Dinarello

Charles A. Dinarello, MD serves as Chairman of Olatec's Scientific Advisory Board and Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Dinarello joined Olatec’s Drug Development Team in January 2014 and became a member of the Scientific Advisory Board in May 2014. Dr. Dinarello elucidated the mechanism of action of dapansutrile (OLT1177) as an NLRP3 inhibitor that prevents the formation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, which in turn inhibits the production of bioactive IL-1β and IL-18. Dr. Dinarello’s ongoing translational research for Olatec is on the molecular mechanism and pharmacology of dapansutrile and the OLT Analogues. Dr. Dinarello is considered one of the world’s leading experts on cytokine biology, with a focus on interleukin IL-1 and IL-18 as mediators of inflammation. Dr. Dinarello is considered one of the founding fathers of cytokines. Dr. Dinarello was the first to identify IL‑1α in 1974 and completed the purification of IL-1β in 1977. His group reported the first cDNA for IL-1β in 1984. He has published over 1000 original research articles and 250 reviews and book chapters on inflammatory cytokines, particularly on IL-1, the IL-1 family and related cytokines. He has trained over 50 investigators, many of whom are recognized experts in their fields. The Institute for Scientific Information listed Dinarello as the world’s 4th most-cited scientist during the 20 years 1983 to 2002; and from 1996 to 2011 he was listed as one of 400 of the world’s most influential biomedical researchers. In 1998, Dr. Dinarello was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences, and in 2010, he was made a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. Dr. Dinarello received his medical degree from Yale University, clinical training at the Massachusetts General Hospital and from 1971 to 1977, he was senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. Dr. Dinarello is presently Distinguished Professor at the University of Colorado’s School of Medicine, where he is Professor of Medicine and Immunology; he is also Professor of Experimental Medicine at Radboud University in the Netherlands. Dr. Dinarello has received numerous honorary degrees, awards and medals from among the most prestigious universities and research institutes around the world. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Weizmann Institute (Israel) and Ben Gurion University (Israel) and former Vice President of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and President of the International Cytokine Society. Dr. Dinarello has received honorary degrees from the University of Marseille (France), the Weizmann Institute (Israel), the University of Frankfurt (Germany), Roosevelt University (USA), Albany Medical College (USA), Radboud University (Netherlands), Trinity College (Ireland), the University of Bonn (Germany) and Aarhus University (Denmark). For his contributions to the field of cytokines and medicine, he received the Squibb Award (USA), Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine (Germany), Gold Medal of the Heilmeyer Society for Internal Medicine (Germany), Chirone Prize (Italian National Academy of Medicine), Carol Nachman Prize (Germany), Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashdid al Maktoum Award (United Arab Emirates), Beering Prize (USA), Albany Prize in Medical Research (USA), Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Sweden), Paul Ehrlich Prize (Germany), Bonfils-Stanton Prize (USA), the Novartis Prize in Clinical Immunology (Switzerland), the Bonazinga Award (USA) and Drexel Prize in Immunology (USA). Dr. Dinarello received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Eicosanoid Foundation for his pioneering studies on the role of lipids in cytokine-mediated inflammation. In 2017, Dr. Dinarello was awarded the Meinhard von Pflaundler Medal, Ludwig Maximillan University (Germany) and the Cerami Prize (USA). In 2020, Dr. Dinarello received the Tang Prize (Taiwan). Dr. Dinarello donates the monies from his awards and prizes to The Interleukin Foundation, a charitable foundation he established in 2009, which supports research on cytokines, particularly to young investigators.