Bellinzona, May 20, 2021. Antonio Lanzavecchia, founding Director of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine for 20 years, Professor of the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences at the USI and Professor at the D-BIOL’s Institute of Microbiology at the ETH Zurich, is given the Ernst Jung Gold Medal for Medicine from the Jung Foundation for his life’s work on innate and acquired immunity. The Ernst Jung Symposium and award ceremony will be held virtually on 20 May 2021.
Prof. Antonio Lanzavecchia is considered one of the most influential and widely cited immunologists in Europe and worldwide. Lanzavecchia’s contributions to human immunology include fundamental discoveries on antigen presentation, T cell activation, immunological memory and human monoclonal antibodies. In his laboratory at the IRB, he developed methods to isolate human monoclonal antibodies that are currently being developed as therapeutics against important infectious diseases, such as Ebola. His accomplishments were already recognized by several prizes (1988 EMBO Gold Medal, 1999 Cloetta Prize, 2017 Robert Koch Prize, 2017 Sanofi-Institut Pasteur Award, 2018 Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine) and elected memberships (EMBO, Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences, US National Academy of Sciences). The Ernst Jung Gold Medal for Medicine confirms once again his exceptional achievements in the field of human immunology. Prof. Lanzavecchia is currently based at the National Institute of Molecular Genetics (INGM), Milan, Italy.
The Ernst Jung Gold Medal for Medicine is accompanied by a scholarship of 30,000 euros, which he can award to a young scientist of his choice. “I think it’s wonderful that a prize that recognises my professional achievements goes hand in hand with a scholarship for a young researcher. This creates a special connection between the generations,” emphasises Lanzavecchia.
During the award ceremony, Antonio Lanzavecchia will hold his talk entitled “Antibodies and vaccines: The immune system at work” (see Ernst Jung Symposium 2021)
The Jung Foundation for Science and Research is committed to promoting the advancement of human medicine in Germany and internationally across disciplines. It supports basic research in human medicine and especially the further research of clinical importance, which builds upon it and thus contributes to projects which are the starting point to the development of new treatments.
To this end, the foundation establishes platforms for scientific communication beyond national and disciplinary borders.
The foundation awards three prizes to top researchers every year. They rank among the highest endowed medical awards throughout Europe with a total sum of €540,000: the Ernst Jung Prize for Medicine, the Ernst Jung Gold Medal for Medicine and the Ernst Jung Career Advancement Award for Medical Research.
