Robert Koch Prize and Gold Medal Awarded

BERLIN, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The Robert Koch Foundation has awarded the Robert Koch Prize for 2005, worth euro 100,000, to Professor Brian J. Druker. He receives the prize for his pioneering discoveries concerning the development and therapy of chronic myelogenous leukemia, a type of blood cancer. The Foundation has awarded the Robert Koch Gold Medal to Professor Emil R. Unanue for a lifetime of scientific achievement. The prizes were presented on October 28 by Dr. Klaus Theo Schroder, Secretary of State at the Federal Ministry for Health and Social Security, at Langenbeck-Virchow House in Berlin.

Professor Brian J. Druker (50) is Co-Director of the Center for Hematologic Malignancies in the Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon, USA. He receives the prize in recognition of his research into the identification and characterization of BCR-ABL oncogene substrates and the significance of activated tyrosine kinases in signaling and cellular transformation.

In the course of his work, Druker discovered that the ABL protein tyrosine kinase in the cell plays a decisive role in the development of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a malignant disease of the body's blood-forming system. This discovery led to the development of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib, which can inhibit the growth of the cells that cause CML. Normal cells are not damaged during therapy with imatinib. These findings were confirmed in clinical studies and led to a new, successful treatment for this type of blood cancer.

A lifetime of achievement in cellular immunity

The Robert Koch Foundation awarded the Robert Koch Gold Medal to Dr. Emil R. Unanue (71), Mallinckrodt Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. This award honors his outstanding scientific achievements during his lifetime, which have focused on cellular immunity to bacterial disease pathogens and protein antigens.

Unanue studied the mechanisms that trigger an immune reaction when pathogens enter the body. He showed that two different cell systems need to communicate with each other in order to eliminate the pathogens. A pathogen is engulfed and decomposed by the phagocytes (scavenger cells). The fragments are then bound to MHC molecules (histocompatibility molecules) which are recognized by certain white blood cells, the T-lymphocytes. These in turn form antibodies which kill the infected cells.

The Robert Koch Prize, awarded annually, is one of the highest-ranking scientific awards in Germany. The Foundation under the patronage of Federal President Horst Kohler promotes basic research into infectious diseases and other widespread medical conditions.

The researcher after whom the prize is named was the founder of modern bacteriology. Robert Koch (1843 - 1910) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology 100 years ago for this work. He discovered the bacterium that causes anthrax in 1876, and in 1882 isolated the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. From 1883 onwards, Koch devoted his time to investigating other infectious diseases such as cholera. From 1891 until his retirement in 1904 he was Director of the Institute for Infectious Diseases in Berlin.

Post-doctoral prizes for young scientists

The Robert Koch Foundation also awards a number of post-doctoral prizes, each worth euro 3,000, for outstanding work done by upcoming young scientists. These were also presented during the prize-giving ceremony in Berlin. The German Hygiene and Microbiology Society, the German Immunology Society and the German Virology Society are entitled to propose candidates for these prizes.

The Post-doctoral Prize for Hygiene and Microbiology was awarded to Dr. Volkhard Kempf, Tubingen, for his work on the principles of pathogenesis due to Bartonella henselae. Dr. Anne Krug, Munich, was awarded the Prize for Immunology for her work on the function of plasmocytoid dendritic cells in fighting infection. Dr. Thomas Pietschmann, Heidelberg, was awarded the Prize for Virology for his work on the successful replication of the hepatitis C virus in cell culture.