NEUROIMMUNITY

NEUROIMMUNITY gives the general reader a fascinating and informative view of the immune system as a crucial control of our brain functions, including cognition in general as well as stress, depression, brain ageing, neurological disorders, and responses to physical trauma.

Professor Schwartz' discoveries about the immunology of the central nervous system offer great promise for a more effective treatment of disorders such as paralysis, depression, glaucoma, and Alzheimer's disease. But NEUROIMMUNITY also exposes the work of the researcher as she fights to proves her thesis, the ups and downs of a scientists life and work and the final acceptance—after resistance—by the scientific community. Michal Schwartz is a professor of neuroimmunology at The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. Her work focuses on the role of the immune system in the central nervous system. Schwartz has revolutionized the field of brain and spinal cord injuries and neurodegenerative diseases. She pioneered the concept of “protective autoimmunity” and its role in the maintenance of life-long brain plasticity. Schwartz has shown that there is “cross-talk” between the immune and the nervous systems. She has developed a cell-based therapy, based on the function of immune cells, for the treatment of severe spinal cord injury. Professor Schwartz is the recipient of many important and prestigious awards for her research, including the Friedenwald Award, NARSAD's Distinguished Investigator's Award, American Spinal Cord Injury Association's Distinguished Memorial Lectureship. She is an elected member of the International and European Societies for Neuroimmunology.