The Phillip J Bowen Award is given to a person who exemplifies extraordinary service to their community and to helping others. Big House Big Heart was started by Mike Highfield to honor his law partner Phil Bowen, from the law firm, Conlin, Mckenney and Philbrick. Phil passed away 2 weeks before the first BHBH, stricken with ALS. BHBH began as an event to raise awareness about ALS and to raise money for ALS research at the University of Michigan. It has grown into a fundraiser also for CS Mott Hospital and UM Cardiovascular Center plus hundreds of area non profits, many of which Phil Bowen served during his life in Ann Arbor.

The 2010 Philip J. Bowen Award winner is Nicholas Boulis, MD. Dr. Boulis graduated summa cum laude from Yale University with distinction in the intensive Biology and Philosophy majors. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School winning the Harold Lamport Biomedical Research Award and was an active member of the Feldman Laboratory during his residency training at the University of Michigan (1994-2001).

Dr. Boulis’ surgical training, together with his longstanding commitment to regenerative medicine as applied to neurodegenerative diseases makes him a unique resource.   As a junior investigator and practicing neurosurgeon, his research faces the challenge of competition with full time researchers, while simultaneously needing to maintain his surgical skills.  Despite these challenges, Dr. Boulis is recognized nationally for his expertise in functional and peripheral nerve neurosurgery.  In addition to this clinical expertise, Dr. Boulis’ laboratory is actively involved with the development of cellular and molecular therapies for ALS, spinal muscular atrophy, giant axonal neuropathy, epilepsy, spasticity, and pain.  

In the last year, Dr. Boulis has presented his work at the American Society for Gene Therapy, Society for Neuroscience, The Congress of Neurological Surgeons, and The American Association of Neurologic Surgeons. He is the author of 46 publications. For the past seven years, Dr. Boulis has independently organized and secured funding for an outreach/teaching mission to provide surgical therapy to patients in Guatemala requiring treatment for hydrocephalus and spina bifida. To date, "Project Shunt" has provided 186 free operations to impoverished Guatemalan children.

He is currently working on strategies for gene based motor neuron protection for ALS, neural targeting of gene delivery, and gene-based neuromodulation. He collaborates with Nicholas Mazarakis, Ph.D., of Oxford Biomedica as well as Michael Imperiale, PhD. and Eva Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., at the University of Michigan in the field of ALS gene therapy.