on January 27, 2017
At the 26th Pfizer Research Prize Foundation awards ceremony, held in Zurich on the evening of January 26th, three researchers from the Institute of Research in Biomedicine (IRB, Università della Svizzera italiana) received a prize for their research in the category Infectious diseases, Rheumatology and Immunology. The awardees, Joshua Tan, Kathrin Pieper, Luca Piccoli, are members of the research group led by IRB Director Antonio Lanzavecchia, and are the authors of the article published (December 2015) in the leading scientific journal Nature in 2015 “A LAIR1 insertion generates broadly reactive antibodies against malaria variant antigens”. Their research describes a new groundbreaking mechanism that generates super-antibodies that can broadly target malaria parasites.
Awarded annually by the Pfizer Research Prize Foundation since 1992, this prize is one of Switzerland’s most prestigious tributes in the field of research. Nominations for the prize are made by independent scientific committees for the two areas of basic research and clinical research. With this year’s 25 prizewinners, the 26th annual award now brings the number of scientists who have won Pfizer Research Prizes to 308, with prize money totaling over 5.7 million Swiss francs being channeled into medical research in Switzerland.
For information on the Pfizer Research Prize Foundation and details on the 2017 awardees (in German and French): www.pfizerforschungspreis.ch
For details on the IRB study: https://irb.usi.ch/new-antibodies-extra-fragment-overcome-malaria-parasite-diversity-study-published-nature
