Dr. Lawrence Steinman is Professor of Neurology, Neurological Sciences and Pediatrics at Stanford University and Chair of the Stanford Program in Immunology from 2001 to 2011. His research focuses on what provokes relapses and remissions in multiple sclerosis (MS) and in neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and the quest for antigen specific therapy. He is developing a small molecule therapeutic in trials for Huntington’s Disease. Steinman identified guardian molecules in brain that have protective properties in a number of inflammatory conditions. These protective molecules activate regulatory B cells.

Steinman was senior author on the 1992 Nature article that led to the drug Tysabri, approved for MS and Crohn’s disease.

Dr. Steinman graduated from Dartmouth College, Magna Cum Laude in Physics. His MD is from Harvard Medical School. He was a post-doctoral fellow in chemical immunology fellow at the Weizmann Institute of Science. After neurology residency he remained on the faculty in 1980. 

He has received numerous honors, including the John M. Dystel Prize in 2004, the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the NINDS twice, the Charcot Prize in MS research, and the Cerami Prize in Translational Medicine. Steinman is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Steinman holds 44 patents. He cofounded several biotech companies. He was a Director of
Centocor from 1988 until its sale to Johnson and Johnson.