Jung Foundation for Science and Research Awards Medical Prizes for Excellent Human Medicine 2022 in Hamburg
Hamburg, 12 May 2022. The Jung Foundation for Science and Research is presenting its three awards for cutting-edge medicine today in Hamburg. This year, outstanding work in the fields of research into the molecular causes of vascular diseases, molecular virology, cancer-related metastasis and a lifetime’s work in the field of human immunology will be recognised. With a total of 540,000 euros, the Foundation’s prizes are among the highest endowed medical prizes in Europe. Tomorrow, 13 May 2022, the Jung Symposium of Medical Research will also take place for the second time, where the award winners will present their research results in a digital live stream.
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The Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine, which is endowed with 300,000 euros, has been awarded each year since 1976 and benefits scientists whose projects have made a significant contribution to the progress of human medicine and who can be expected to do so in the future. This year, the biochemist and pharmacologist Professor Dr Ingrid Fleming and the virologist Professor Dr Dr h. c. Ralf Bartenschlager share this prestigious prize.
Ingrid Fleming from the Centre for Molecular Medicine at Goethe University in Frankfurt receives the prize for her successful research into possible secondary diseases of diabetes and other vascular diseases. These can include vascular occlusion, heart attacks and blindness. Transferring her results into medical applications also plays an important role for the award.
With his work on researching the biology of so-called RNA viruses, Ralf Bartenschlager has succeeded in creating a basis for being able to cure damage after chronic infection with the hepatitis C virus – such as liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. For this work, the head of the Department of Molecular Virology at Heidelberg University Hospital is being honoured this year by the Jung Foundation. Bartenschlager is also head of the Department of Virus-Associated Carcinogenesis at the German Cancer Research Center.
With the Ernst Jung Medal for Medicine in Gold, the Jung Foundation honours each year the life’s work of scientists who have made and continue to make a significant contribution to medical progress. This year, the award goes to the human immunologist Professor Dr Alain Fischer, who already received the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine in 1998. Prof. Dr Alain Fischer, MD, from the Institut Imagine and the Collège de France, dedicated more than 40 years of his life to the field of clinical immunology and achieved significant progress with his scientific work: He deciphered the development of different congenital immunodeficiencies and developed a corresponding gene therapy. The Jung Foundation would now like to honour this achievement with the Ernst Jung Medal for Medicine in Gold. The prize is accompanied by a scholarship of 30,000 euros, which Alain Fischer can award to a young researcher of his choice.
The Jung Foundation also promotes young doctors and awards the Ernst Jung Career Advancement Prize annually for this purpose. This year, the Foundation is supporting cancer researcher Dr Anastasios Giannou from the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf with a total of 210,000 euros. Over a period of three years, he can use this funding to finance the initiation and further development of initial independent research projects. As a doctor and postdoc at the Institute of General, Visceral and Thoracic Surgery and I. Medical Clinic, he is researching promising approaches to understanding and preventing the metastasis of tumours in the body – or at least limiting this.
The Ernst Jung Career Development Award is the only one of the three awards for which you can actively apply. It is aimed at junior doctors who, after at least two years of scientific research work, preferably abroad, want to work at a German hospital in order to do in-depth scientific work and, at the same time, aspire to clinical training as a specialist. The current tender is running until August 2022. More detailed information is available at www.jung-stiftung.de.
Science live: Jung Symposium 2022
After the successful start last year, the Jung Foundation for Science and Research is again offering interested colleagues and young scientists the opportunity to get to know outstanding research results digitally in 2022. For this purpose, the second Jung Symposium of Medical Research will take place on 13 May 2022, where this year’s Jung Foundation laureates will present their research via livestream and respond to questions. With this contemporary format, the award-winning scientists provide an insight into the wide world of medicine and it enables those interested to engage in an active exchange with the 2022 award winners. Further information and registration at: https://jung-stiftung.de/en/symposium-2022-en/