NIHR | Manchester Biomedical Research Centre

Professor David Felson awarded international prize honouring outstanding innovative research in rheumatology

Congratulations to Professor David Felson, Programme Lead in the BRC’s Musculoskeletal Theme, who was awarded the prestigious Carol-Nachman Prize for rheumatology at a recent awards ceremony in Germany.

The award, sponsored by the German city of Wiesbaden, is the highest honour awarded to a rheumatologist and is granted annually in recognition of outstanding innovative research in this field. It serves to promote clinical, therapeutic and experimental research.

Professor David Felson splits his time between Boston University and The University of Manchester, where he is Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology. He is part of the BRC’s Musculoskeletal Theme, led by Professor Anne Barton, where he conducts research into new treatments for osteoarthritis focusing on prevention, treatment and outcome measures.

The Board of Trustees of the Carol-Nachman were impressed by Professor Felson’s achievements in new therapy options for osteoarthritis patients, they added: “With his work on the epidemiology, diagnosis and therapy of osteoarthritis, Professor Felson has created the basis for the necessary further development of new therapy options for osteoarthritis patients. He is a pioneer in the development of objective therapeutic protocols for patients with rheumatic diseases, which, in conjunction with the necessary definition of disease activity criteria, enable the assessment of the effectiveness of new medicines.”

Professor David Felson receiving his award
Osteoarthritis is the commonest type of musculoskeletal disease but there are few non-surgical treatments currently available. David’s work has been ground-breaking in exploring the use of knee bracing, shoe orthoses and new drugs to slow progression of osteoarthritis so he is a very worth recipient of this prestigious award. We are very proud that he is part of the musculoskeletal theme of the BRC.

Professor Anne Barton

Professor Felson is programme lead for the Degenerative Joint Disease in the BRC, looking at identifying the most effective therapies and technologists for osteoarthritis. His team will look to validate promising new therapies such as vitamin K2 and regenerative technologies.

The Carol-Nachman prize has been awarded to 75 internationally recognised scientists since 1972. The prize is also supported by AbbVie in Germany.