Research paper from CWRU School of Medicine among 2025 PNAS Cozzarelli Prize recipients
A paper titled “Inhibiting 15-PGDH blocks blood–brain barrier deterioration and protects mice from Alzheimer’s disease and traumatic brain injury” published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) from the laboratories of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine professors Andrew Pieper, MD, PhD, and Sanford Markowitz, MD, PhD, is among the six recipients of the 2025 PNAS Cozzarelli Prize. The award is named after the late PNAS Editor-in-Chief Nicholas R. Cozzarelli and honors research that reflects outstanding scientific excellence and originality.
The prize-winning paper identified a new and promising drug that can help prevent neurodegeneration and cognitive impairment in Alzheimer’s disease by protecting the blood-brain barrier through blocking an enzyme in the immune system known as 15-PGDH.
The 2025 winners will be recognized at an awards ceremony during the National Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting in April 2026.
Case Western Reserve University researchers named as authors on the paper include Yeojung Koh, Edwin Vázquez-Rosa, Farrah Gao, Hongyun Li, Sarah Barker, Zea Bud, Anusha Bangalore, Uapingena P. Kandjoze, Rose A. León-Alvarado, Preethy S. Sridharan, Brittany A. Cordova, Youngmin Yu, Jiwon Hyung, Hua Fang, Salendra Singh, Ramachandra Katabathula, Thomas LaFramboise, Lakshmi Kasturi, James Lutterbaugh, Lydia Beard, Erika Cordova, Coral J. Cintrón-Pérez, Kathryn Franke, Mariana Franco Fragoso, Emiko Miller, Vidya Indrakumar, Kamryn L. Noel, Matasha Dhar, Filipa Blasco Tavares Pereira Lopes, Evangeline Bambakidis, Xiongwei Zhu, Brigid Wilson, Hisashi Fujioka, Stephen P. Fink, Amar B. Desai, Dawn Dawson, Min-Kyoo Shin, Sanford D. Markowitz and Andrew A. Pieper.
