Associate Professor Tomas Kalincik receives Leonard Cox Award

We are excited to share the news that Associate Professor Tomas Kalincik, Department of Medicine and Radiology, is the 2019 recipient of the Leonard Cox Award.

The Leonard Cox Award was established in 2000 to recognise an investigator who has contributed significantly to neuroscience research at an early stage of their career.

Associate Professor Kalincik was presented with his award at the Australia and New Zealand Association of Neurologists’ meeting in Sydney last week.

At the conference, Associate Professor Kalincik presented an oration on navigating treatment choices in multiple sclerosis.

He also participated in a debate with the invited international guest speaker, Professor Jan Hillert (from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden), on the most appropriate approach to treating multiple sclerosis.

The award recognises Associate Professor Kalincik ongoing efforts in the field of multiple sclerosis research as leader of the Clinical Outcomes Research (CORe) Unit at The University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital.

His studies are performed in collaboration with the MSBase registry, which collects data from 139 clinical centres in 34 countries around the world.

Using the extensive real-world information contained within MSBase, Tomas has led projects that are resulting in significant outcomes for people living with multiple sclerosis.

In particular, his research has shown that multiple sclerosis treatments can still provide benefits for people with active forms of progressive disease, which was previously believed to not be true.

Furthermore, a study published earlier this year in JAMA, a highly prestigious medical journal, showed that multiple sclerosis treatments are effective in the long-term by delaying the onset of progressive disease.