Rate My Professor Charles Dinarello

Charles A. Dinarello, MD, is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine-Infectious Disease at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus School of Medicine. He also serves as Professor of Medicine and Immunology there and as Professor of Experimental Medicine at Radboud University in the Netherlands. Dinarello received his A.B. degree magna cum laude from Boston University in 1965 and his M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine in 1969. He completed internship and residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and held research positions at the National Institutes of Health from 1971 to 1977. He then joined Tufts University School of Medicine as Assistant Professor of Medicine in 1977, advancing to Associate Professor in 1982 and full Professor in 1987. In 1996, he moved to the University of Colorado School of Medicine as Professor of Medicine, achieving the rank of Distinguished Professor.

Dinarello pioneered the field of cytokine biology, discovering interleukin-1α and interleukin-1β in 1974, purifying IL-1β in 1977, and isolating its gene in 1984. His research centers on the interleukin-1 family of cytokines and receptors, innate and acquired immunity, inflammasome inhibitors, rheumatic diseases, diabetes, and autoinflammatory conditions. This work has led to approved therapies like anakinra for blocking IL-1 in inflammatory diseases. He has authored over 1,000 publications, including "The IL-1 family of cytokines and receptors in rheumatic diseases" (Nature Reviews Rheumatology, 2019), "Targeting innate immune mediators in type 1 and type 2 diabetes" (Nature Reviews Immunology, 2019), and "Interleukin 37 reverses the metabolic cost of inflammation" (PNAS, 2017). Dinarello has received major awards such as the 2020 Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science, 2009 Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 2009 Albany Medical Center Prize, 1993 Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine, and 1986 Squibb Award from the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1998, he was ranked the world's fourth most-cited scientist from 1983 to 2002 and among the most influential biomedical researchers from 1996 to 2011. He has mentored over 50 investigators now leading cytokine research.