Tony Reder, MD, Professor of Neurology at the University of Chicago, helped develop interferon-β1b — the first FDA-approved biologic therapy for multiple sclerosis. His research uncovered subnormal IFN signaling in MS patients, providing the biological rationale for IFN-beta treatment, and his lab continues to unravel the striking dysregulation of gene expression and alternative splicing in MS. A longtime Cytokine Society member, Reder brings the same curiosity to literature, travel, and narrowly avoiding giant clams on the Great Barrier Reef.
Please tell us your name, degree, where you currently work, and position.
Tony Reder, MD, is a professor of Neurology at the University of Chicago
Where did you do your training?
Working in the fields as a child laborer, on a very hot day, my father said, “This is why you should go to college.” I received an honors degree in Psychology at the University of Michigan on how limbic brain lesions affect behavior. At Michigan Med School, I studied the reversibility of spinal cord lesions. During residency at the University of Minnesota, I studied B cell activation in multiple sclerosis. Then, at the University of Chicago, I studied MS and brain/immune/endocrine interactions—integrated with clinical trials of patients in the nascent field of immune therapy of MS. We helped develop interferon--1b, the first FDA-approved biologic therapy for MS, FDA-approved in 1993. It opened a path for scores of new treatments for diseases with immune disruption.
Briefly, what is your research about?
In vivo human studies are difficult, but are a good model for human disease. Xuan Feng and I focused on the biology of interferons in MS after we found that IFN signaling in white blood cells (PBMC) and serum IFN levels are subnormal in MS – providing a rationale for IFN-beta treatment in MS. We now find that gene expression in MS PBMC is highly dysregulated, with 8,900 differentially expressed genes compared to healthy controls. There is also huge dysregulation of alternative splicing, surprisingly separate from the DEG (in JISCR). Why?
Tell us your thoughts about ICIS: how has being involved in the Cytokine Society helped your career?
The meetings are filled with new ideas and new techniques that we rapidly apply to our research. Ironically, Xuan Feng and I were usually the only MS researchers and neurologists at the meeting, despite the early use of IFN-beta as the sole treatment for MS.
Are there any particular friendships or collaborations that came specifically out of Cytokines meetings?
We learned about interferon kinetics from Gideon Schreiber; the art of submitting papers from Ray Donnelly, JISICR; virology from El Jefe, Curt Horvath; and made exciting new contacts in Seatle, 2025 – Ella Brunsting, Ang Cui, Christopher Jondle, and Charles Rice.
What Cytokines meeting(s) have been your favorites? Tell us about any special memories or anecdotes.
Korea, 2024; Florence, 2011; and Shanghai, 2005. Cairns, Australia, 2003: Snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, a 4-foot-wide Giant Clam snapped shut next to my head. Perhaps just saying, “G’day mate!”
What do you like to do when not in the lab?
Explore science and the world with interesting people.
What is the best life/career advice you’ve ever received?
Have at least two research projects—one with guaranteed important results and one long-shot that may change the world.
What book or TV show are you reading/watching right now that you recommend?
From past to future:
- Anna Karenina — Vronsky was misunderstood
- You Dreamed of Empires, Alvaro Enrigue
- Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver
- The Project (2025), David Graham
- A Really Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart
- Robopocalypse, Daniel H. Wilson
- Oryx and Crake trilogy, Margaret Atwood
- TV: Slow Horses
What is your favorite cytokine?
Interferon-beta