Ruslan Medzhitov recebeu o "Else Kröner Fresenius Award", novo prêmio em Imunologia

Inaugural Else Kröner Fresenius Award presented – prize series announced

Berlin, June 05, 2013

The Yale professor for Immunobiology, Ruslan Medzhitov, HHMI, has received the 4 Mio. Euro Else Kröner Fresenius Award. Starting with this year’s award, which is marking the 25th anniversary of the death of foundress Else Kröner; the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung announces to launch a 4-yearly medical research prize series.

Ruslan Medzhitov recebeu o Else Kröner Fresenius Award no último dia 5.

The Else Kröner Fresenius Award was launched to recognize groundbreaking discoveries in immunology and to facilitate highly innovative and clinically relevant future research. The winner Ruslan Medzhitov, born in 1966, is already a highly decorated scientist, among other distinctions, he was appointed Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in 2001. His work contributed greatly to understand the interaction between the innate immune system, providing an immediate defense against infections, with the adaptive immune system, which develops highly specific responses to infectious agents.

He identified the human toll-like receptor (TLR) and elucidated its role in activation of inflammatory and immune responses. While 0.5 Mio euros will be at the personal disposal of the winner, 3.5 Mio euros will be dedicated to the future work of Ruslan Medzhitov and his team of young scientists. They will set out to investigate largely unexplored fields of infectious disease biology such as the role of possibly harmful body reactions associated with pathogen elimination (immunopathology) or the organism’s capacity for disease-free tolerance of microorganisms.

The award winner was identified in very close cooperation with the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). In a world-wide recruitment, 45 very promising nominations of individual scientists and teams were received. An international jury of highly prominent immunologists evaluated all nominations and as the result of a very thorough multistep process identified the winner. The jury was chaired by IUIS president Prof. Stefan H.E. Kaufmann.

The Else Kröner Fresenius Stiftung is announcing to launch a series of similarly endowed international research awards, the Else Kröner Fresenius Medical Research Prize. Every four years, the Prize will be dedicated to a different field of medical research offering particular promise of seminal breakthroughs. These fields will be identified in a broad, science-driven expert discussion process. With this commitment, the foundation intends to mark the global scope and importance of Else Kröner lifetime achievements as entrepreneur and foundress and set a powerful signal for the great potential of research.

Further information: www.ekfs.de/de/else-kroener-fresenius-award.html

About the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung
Promoting medical progress and helping people in need - these were the driving forces behind Else Kröner. Out of the Frankfurt Hirsch pharmacy and a smaller pharmaceutical business, the pharmaceutical entrepreneur built up the global healthcare group Fresenius, which currently employs about 170,000 people. When Else Kröner died on June 5, 1988 her assets were passed on to the non-profit organization Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung, which she founded in 1983. The Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung promotes top class medical research and supports medical humanitarian projects. To date, the Foundation has funded 1,100 projects with a total of approximately 150 million euros.