OKLAHOMA CITY, Nov. 13, 2006 – The Lupus Foundation of America has named Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation researcher Morris “Moe” Reichlin, M.D., as the 2006 winner of its Evelyn V. Hess Award. Reichlin will receive the award at a dinner tonight in Washington, D.C.

The Lupus Foundation of America bestows the award annually to a researcher who has made outstanding contributions to the field of lupus research, diagnosis and treatment.

Reichlin, a rheumatologist, developed the “Reichlin profile,” an authoritative diagnostic test for lupus, a disease that causes the body’s own immune system to attack itself. In a career as a researcher, teacher and physician that has spanned almost five decades, Reichlin has written about 500 scientific papers and abstracts on the disease.

Reichlin came to OMRF in 1981, and in the quarter-century since, has built OMRF into one of the world’s leading research centers for lupus, a disease that affects an estimated 1.5 million Americans. The program that he created now employs 170 staff members and is home to the Lupus Family Registry and Repository—the world’s largest collection of biological samples from families with multiple lupus patients.

“Moe Reichlin trained an entire generation of rheumatologists, and he also treated many Oklahomans with lupus,” said OMRF President Emeritus J. Donald Capra, who was one of Reichlin’s nominators for the award. “He continues to do outstanding research, and the Evelyn V. Hess Award is a well-deserved testament to the tremendous impact he has made in the world of lupus.”

About OMRF:
Celebrating its 60th birthday in 2006, OMRF (www.omrf.org) is a nonprofit biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding and curing human disease. Its scientists focus on such critical research areas as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, lupus and cardiovascular disease. It is home to Oklahoma’s only member of the National Academy of Sciences.